A Long Weekend

It's a lazy Sunday morning here.  Kloe and Derrick are playing Mario Brothers (both yelling intermittently at the screen and each other), and I am laying here in my new bathrobe (Derrick says it looks like baby seal skin... excellent) rereading my old blogs and realizing it is time to get back on the horse of writing in here.  Derrin is at a sleepover in Dixon with his friend Lewie's house (Derrick insists on pulling my socks off as I write... apparently interrupting me while I write helps his Mario game...).

It was Thanksgiving this Thursday, so we had a four day weekend from work and five day weekend from school.  We managed to spend a lot of time with various friends, but still had some down time together at home.

Our Long Weekend Included

• The kids spent Wednesday geocaching with the Taylors.  All reports from them indicate it was an awesome day.  Derrin especially loves geocaching, which doesn't surprise me.  I had to work that day, but that night I went to Lyndsay's house for an all-girl 'spa night'.  I had imagined that our 'spa night' would include drinking some wine in her hot tub and talking until the wee hours of the night, which sounded awesome to me.  Instead, Lyndsay created an amazing spa atmosphere in her house with soft music, candles, snacks, and wine, and then had us all get into our robes while she sat out tubs of hot water with bathsalts for us to soak our feet in.  She did this for all eight of us, while bringing sugar scrubs and glasses of wine and hot towels to wrap our legs in. After we were all soft and scrubbed, we sat around her table and painted finger and toe nails while having some serious girl talk.  It was a really great night.  Lyndsay is a generous and amazing person... I learned a serious lesson on giving that night.  

• Thursday morning I woke up early, and met Shannon at body pump.  Usually the class is insanely full on holiday mornings, but it wasn't as crazy full this time.  Later that day, the three Sturgill kids came over to hang out (they were visiting from Washington this weekend), and they ended up playing outside and in their rooms most of that day.  Amanda came over to visit a bit before taking Jalen and Lilly and Audrey stayed to spend the night with Kloe.  

• Friday.... aw, Black Friday.  Normally, I shun all shopping on Black Friday.  As an opportunity to hang out with the girls (as in Shannon and Lyndsay and her friend Cassandra), I actually ventured out for this Black Friday.  We didn't meet until ten, so most of the crazy door busters were over, and therefore most of the crazy crowds were gone.  We hit Murdock's (bought a skiing hat), Goodwill (Weird, right?  But everything was 50% off, and I bought a bunch of summer dresses and wine glasses and still came in under $30), then we hit Huhot's for lunch, and we had just ventured into the mall when I decided to call to find out what time we needed to show up for our dinner plans at Steve and Sabrina's.  Turned out that our early dinner had changed into late lunch, and somehow we'd fallen through the cracks of dinner time awareness.  While I had assumed I would have until around 4 or 5 to get there, it turned out that we were supposed to be there at 1 and everyone else was already there.  After a mild heart attack and some deep breathing exercises, I called Derrick to tell him Kloe's sleepover needed to end early and Audrey needed a ride back to her folks, and then I gathered my girls from the four corners of the mall and gave them all a ride back to Murdock's where we'd left their cars.  

• The dinner/game night resulted in a lot of fun, regardless of our tardiness.  It was full of lots of my favorite people (Diefenbachs, Leeflangs, McArthurs), good food and drinks, and happy atmosphere.  We played poker (I lost the first game, but then won a later game- important to note that detail...), and also Liar's Dice.  The little girls (the McArthur girls, Alana, and Kloe) all spent the night with Darby, and by Kloe's account no one went to sleep until around 4 in the morning. Party Animals.

• On Saturday, Derrin went over to Lewie's house after service, and we picked up a very tired Miss Kloe.  Derrick wasn't feeling well, so we tucked ourselves in for the rest of the day/night, and did very little.  It felt great.

•  I started writing this Sunday morning (it is now Monday afternoon).  Derrick pestered me into getting off of the couch mid-blog, and going on a walk with him, Kloe and Jessy.  It is getting windy and damp out there, but we had a nice time.  Kloe started feeling icky later that afternoon, so I stayed home from meeting with her.

• And now it is Monday.  The long weekend is over.  This was one of those fairly busy/crazy weekends where even though we had a lot of fun, the normal quiet routine of regular life wasn't all together an unacceptable reality.

And that's about it for the weekend rundown.  This week is supposed to get super cold.  Sounds like real winter is just around the corner.  *sigh*  I guess it was bound to get here eventually.  

First Family Backpacking Trip into the Wild

Derrick and I took the kids on our first ever family backpacking trip into the wilderness this last weekend.  

We went up to Little Rock Creek Lake instead of Canyon Lake (both in the Bitterroot National Forrest), because it was supposed to be an easier hike, and our overall goal had more to do with getting the kids hooked into backpacking (so they'd be excited to go again next time) than doing the actual hike itself.  We invited the another family to join us (Nicole, Travis, Alaina and Luke- I don't use last names in here...), got our gear together (I bought Kloe an Osprey backpack second hand for TEN BUCKS, scrubbed it up and now it's good as new.  Derrin used a backpack I bought at a rummage sale years ago for about ten bucks too.  Thrifty backpacking: it is the way to go), woke up early Friday morning and headed out.  

The kids were very excited- Kloe woke up before any of us (around 5:30), and was practically bouncing with glee out the door.  We were on the trail around 8:00, trying to beat the heat.  Somehow Derrick and I were left behind while everyone raced ahead, but we have a solid policy of slow and steady.  Pacing oneself is the name of the game in backpacking.  

So... the hike went on a bit longer than some of us anticipated.  

My dearest Kloe (if you ever read this as an adult), I hope that you have some fond memories of it (?).  I realize there were some tears, but didn't you learn some great lessons like... well, what it is to hit that wall and have to push through it?  You are (were?) one tough little kid.  You may have cried when you were overwhelmed by the length and the intensity of the trail, but you pushed through it every single time.  I am proud of you.

My dearest Derrin, you were a trooper.  I think you may have found one of your new favorite things this weekend.

Some highlights from our trip (for me) included:   *The day hike we did the next day.  We trekked 3.5 miles further in, and despite the horseflies we (well, I) enjoyed seeing the wild beauty back there. *Travis told fun campfire stories (about the "Miner 49-er", which Kloe especially loved.  *Kloe says here favorite part was climbing all of the rocks.  *Derrin says his favorite part was catching six cut throat trout in a half hour.  *It was fun spending time with our friends.  A lot of bonding can occur on a hike like this one.  *We picked lots of huckleberries!  A new picking spot has been found...

All in all, we hiked 17 miles and gained 3000 ft. in elevation this weekend.

We were so tired when we finally made it back to our truck on Sunday.  After collapsing in exhaustion and cheering in celebration that we could finally stop moving, we drove into town and ordered burgers and whatever other fatty deliciousness we wanted.  It was pure bliss to just sit there and eat.  Going home and walking through our doors was heavenly.

We might go on one more backpacking trip this summer, but if it happens we will make sure it will only be a couple of miles in- and the next day there will be no extra day hiking.  

 

Lost Trail Ski/Snowboarding Day

Early December 25th, we head out for Lost Trail to do a little skiing and snowboarding. It had been two years since the kids and I have been able to go, so I didn't know how great we were going to be.

Turn out, the kids were great- they picked right up from where they had left off. They spent a lot of the day on the bunny hill, getting reacquainted with the whole idea of sliding down a hill while standing with things attached to their feet.

We stayed with them until we knew they were going to be fine, and then we look a few runs with friends. It is cool that the kids are at an age now where Derrick and I can ski together, instead of taking turns while one of us stays with the kids. :)

Derrick took Derrin down his first big run, while Kloe and I warmed up in the lodge. When they got back, all four of us went on a big run together. The first little bit was hard for Kloe because it was so much steeper than the bunny hill. I remember how scary learning to turn from side to side can be. There was the moment where she realized there was no going back; a little bit of panic ensued. After she got up and decided going down the slope was the only way she was going to get off the mountain, she rocked it. She was all ready to head back up by the end, but unfortunately by then, it was time to go.

We hope we can get out there two or three more times this year. All of our skiing/snowboarding abilities would surely benefit.

Before skiing (nice pose for mom... uh huh)

AFTER skiing... passed out cold.  It was a good day.

Almost there!!

Mario Party 2012

In an amazing feat of Sabrina's imagination, we had a Mario Bothers Party December 1st.  As you can see from the pictures, her whole house was Mario Brother themed, including a huge box maze that went down her stairs and then wrapped around her living room.  The kids spent literally HOURS going up and down the stairs and through the maze, which was awesome for the parents, who spent all of their kid free time in the kitchen eating party food.

Kloe dressed up as Baby Bowser (girl version), and Derrin was Koopa Troopa.  I had no idea who these characters were, despite the fact that I actually played and WON the original Mario Brothers, all the way through level 8.  No matter, a quick googling and I knew basically what needed to be done to make the costumes.  Derrick and I were Mario and Luigi, which made for lots of fun/icky fun (for me) with the moustache kissing :)

Brandi Carlile, Sushi, and Seattle (aka, time with David and Tia)

We were able to get out of Dodge for the long weekend to see some of our favorite peeps: David and Tia!  We headed out on Thanksgiving day, so the roads were eerily quiet. 

David and Tara were pretty busy the first day, so Derrick, the kids and I messed around a bit in Seattle.  We ate at one of our favorite Sushi places, and drove around looking at the city.  That night we took the kids to the movie.  We went to "Life of Pi" thinking it was going to be this great kid show (it is rated PG!!) and it turned out to be one of the scariest movies ever.  I almost had to leave with Kloe, and both the people ahead of us and behind us gave us sympathetic/amused looks as soon as the movie was over.  I should have just taken the girl during the movie- it was way too much for her.

We just enjoyed Saturday.  It was nice getting to spend a quiet day together.

Sunday we went to see Brandi Carlile perform with  the Seattle symphony at Benaroya hall.  She is so good; we all had a great time.

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