December 13, 2009

A quick update about the back pain... For the most part it is gone. I read a very amazing book which I highly recommend to anyone experiencing pain or who has a profession which deals with people in pain or even people who are a pain. The book is titled "Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection" and written by John E. Sarno. The pain I was experiencing in my back apparently was directly related to what he discusses in the book in that I experienced a miraculous recovery almost immediately after reading the book. I'm still stiff hear and there, but that is very different than on the floor crying pain.

At risk of giving away the book's content to people who might read it and at risk of scaring people away from the book who would otherwise read it, I will divulge the thesis in it, as I understood it. The main idea is the body will generate pain as a coping mechanism to distract a person from uncomfortable emotion. I am not going to give the author's explanation any justice so I will restate my recommendation that you read the book, but he explains that the unconscious (subconscious) mind generates several thoughts and as the thoughts try to surface, in some cases, our bodies will use pain as a way to prevent the ideas from surfacing to the conscious mind. If there is a great enough magnitude of pain even the most unpleasant emotions can be blocked. The primary emotion he focuses on in the book is anger. When I first read it I thought I had wasted money on the book. I thought to myself, "that's a ridiculous idea, I'm never angry, how could anger be causing me any pain?". Of course after a little bit, the light went on. I am never angry because my conscious mind is never realizing the anger because my body will attack itself to prevent the anger from surfacing.

That lead me to the next book I found quite profound, "Anger Management for Dummies." I am normally much to proud of my intellect to buy, or be caught reading, "For Dummies" books, however referring back to my last entry, a purpose of pain may well be that it is humbling. Anything that might be of any use in freeing me from the pain I was in was very welcome. Actually, I will admit that I have read other "For Dummies" books, and even though I really hate the title, the series is extremely well written. The "Anger Management for Dummies" book referenced the "Mind-Body Connection" book a couple of times and brought up other health links to anger as well. After reading the books I gained a new insight into the link between a person's emotional health and their physical health. I am almost to the point that I believe that the start to the cure for almost any ailment begins with addressing emotional issues. Amazingly enough that even includes things like broken arms and sprained ankles. There have been studies which show a person is up to 12 times more likely to have a work place accident if they are very angry.

I don't have a firm enough understanding of the psychology of anger to give it really good treatment here just off the top of my head, but I will say that anger isn't quite what I thought it was. Before my reading I thought of anger in terms of being angry at someone. The feeling is much broader than that. Anger is a root of disappointment, jealousy, frustration and a lot of other emotions. In fact as I understand it any intensity in an emotion could be rooted in anger. I didn't ever get a finger put directly on what the source of my anger was that was causing my back pain, but as the "Mind-Body Connection" book states a person doesn't really need to, they only need to know that their pain is caused by the body trying to avoid uncomfortable emotion from surfacing. My best guess is that the emotion that I was trying to block was tied to stress around getting ready to move into uncertain circumstances and getting close to releasing the Spelling Castle game. I have tried to explain a couple of times in the blog how and why the release of the Spelling Castle is difficult emotionally, but frankly I don't really know myself, so it is probably even more confusing to the reader. The emotional difficulty is a weird mix of being afraid of failure and afraid of success at the same time. Right now I believe I have worked through the emotion (life sometimes works better when you lie yourself) and am limited to tactical business items that need to be resolved before game release. The game still does have a couple of bugs which I believe are still blocking to a sensible release.

Skipping details of some personal items... ha, I'll bet you didn't think I did that in here :-) I will say that any anxiety I had when leaving Oregon was well justified. Life has felt like I was the ball in a pinball game ever since I got here. Plans have seemed to go back and forth at very violent extremes. Work on the game came to almost a complete stand still between recovering from back pain only to get a really nasty case of flu and then get buried in a lot of home improvement chores. After more than a month I am finally making progress on the game again. So the fall out from my ride through the pin ball machine is that the plan to travel to Texas and possibly on to Florida this winter was replaced by a play to stay in Rexburg on my parent's land indefinitely and freeze our 's off. On the surface that looks like a dumb plan, but it really has been working out quite well so far and even makes sense in some places.

We are excited with the idea of starting a small family farm. The land in Thornton (which by postal addresses is part of Rexburg, but still remains its own township) offers a way that we can get a few chickens, maybe some ducks and possibly a pig without having to shell out for a large mortgage. We have a very nice camp site here which, with some amazing help from my dad, has become even nicer. We did two major home improvement projects. The first was to tie our water supply to my parent's new well by installing two freeze- free hydrants. We really only needed one, but it made sense to put in the other while we had a big hole in the ground. The big hole in the ground was by far my favorite part of the project. We rented a small track hoe which I used to dig the 5 foot deep 200 foot long trench needed to connect the water lines. The digging took longer than we expected and I wound up needing to rent the track hoe half a day longer than anticipated. That dampened my enjoyment of the project a little, but as I told my dad the real expense in the project wasn't the $300 I spent renting the track hoe, the real expense was the need I created in my mind to own such a nifty little toy. So despite what QuickBooks says, I put the project cost of installing my water line at around $25,000. Fortunately $24,300 of that is deferrable expense.

The second major improvement project we did was to add a little eight foot by eight foot enclosed porch to the front of the trailer. As accustomed as we are to the small space in the trailer, the need for winter clothing really overruns us. Adding the porch has given us a great place to hang heavy coats and a double entry to minimize the effects of the cold during ingress and egress, which anyone with kids understands can happen with an average interval of about 45 seconds during the active part of a day. So far the little porch is an outstanding success. We have insulated it and have a catalytic propane heater which we run in it. In fact, I am out on the porch now typing as the family is still sleeping. It is very nice to keep the shoe mess out of the trailer and we have been able to keep cozy and warm even with temperatures dropping into double digit negatives.

Now to the negatives of negative temperatures... We have not been entirely successful in our combat there. I think through the course of the last couple of weeks we have frozen every pipe possible to freeze. Fortunately, to date, the only one we have broken was an external drain pipe. The current cold snap is over, for my friends in warm places, cold snap over means our low temperatures are above 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-17.8 degrees Celsius). We may see one or two highs above freezing, but I am not holding my breath. We were thinking that our plans to get four seasons out of our three season RV were going to fail because it really is so difficult to keep pipes thawed when temperatures drop below zero. However, we decided that we do want to stick to the plan of being in Idaho through the winter and that during break from the most bitter cold I am going to install a few extra circuits to run strategically placed heaters. I will stress that we are very warm and comfortable inside even in the most bitter cold, it is simply that it is a very difficult living situation when the toilet won't flush because the drain is blocked with ice.

My in-laws have graciously offered us their basement if we do indeed find that we cannot win the battle of the cold. So with that as a fall back plan we are going to persist in our idea of staying here, thinking that the worst that happens is we need to make a hurried move.

I still don't fully understand all of the details of our decision to stay in Idaho. I know a lot of it has to do with tactical issues such as time and money management (we loose a lot of both time and money moving) and a lot of it has to do with enjoying being around both sets of grandparents for the kids. First and foremost, every time Lexie and I talk about it and pray about it, staying seems like the right thing to do, or at least leaving doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

I have applied for a position at the local university BYU-Idaho to work in the IT department as an application analyst. I have been very conflicted about the idea of returning to a traditional job in that the time and mental commitment required by a full time job will be a great hindrance to my game development. The hindrance to my game development however isn't the big issue. The big issue is the hindrance to my life that is implied by the hindrance to the game development. So there, I've said it, or written it rather. The game development is my life. Fail at the game development and I've failed at my life. OK I just gained some clearer insight to some possible sources of anger. Failing at life could really leave a person feeling foul. Really, I don't consciously believe that if the game doesn't sell 1 million copies my life failed. I do however believe that if I quit and don't put every energy I have into making my life meaningful to myself and others I will have failed. If I let fear overcome me in my pursuit of what I believe to be right, I will have failed.

I really want something from my life. I don't exactly know what it is, but I want to have a positive impact on the world. The Spelling Castle, although just a cheesy little computer game, fits that in its own way. I hope I can do more than just that, but it is very representative of what I want. So with that decision to return to traditional work really is at odds. I have been highly selective about where I will apply. This has nothing to do with an aversion to work. It has everything to do with wanting to be sure that fruits of my efforts are in line with the goals of my life. If shoveling manure moves me toward my life goals I will be shoveling manure, in fact, as stated earlier, that is the plan for this spring and summer. Working at BYUI is very attractive because I love the school and the church that owns it. It is very exciting to think about the opportunity to make both better through my efforts. I think the position is a great fit with my skills and talents. So with that said, I believe that given an offer I will accept the position. I believe in fact that I may do much better in my marketing efforts if I can use my skills and talents to do something I actually understand, and then contract the marketing efforts. It is very heavily on my mind that this position may be the reason we have felt so strongly impressed to stay in Idaho. Back to my life in the pinball machine reference, I have thought that about other things that were not the case, so I don't really know, but I still entertain the idea that it could be.

I really don't know what my chances of getting the BYUI job are, I just believe that if it is supposed to happen it will happen. I've heard several stories of open job positions getting assaulted with hundreds of resumes. Rexburg isn't exactly overflowing with salaried positions. We passed two days that I believed were the last possible day for me to expect a phone call for an interview. After passing the first day I phoned trying not cry asking if my application had been over looked (I did succeed in not crying). I was assured that there was another week of application review. I spent the next week wondering if I had done something atrocious on my resume like misspell the name of the school, BYUI, nope, I think I got that... was my GPA too low?... my experience not deemed relevant?... and so on. Late in the next week I had fully resolved that it was time to move on and that application to full time work was a mistake in that it distracted resource from game development and I was a fool for even looking at it. So of course, with that fully resolved in my mind, I received a call Friday afternoon asking me to come in for a job interview after the holiday break January 14, 2010. Now I am off the pin ball paddle headed up the ramp toward the bell thinking that getting the BYUI position would be wonderful.

Too long for facebook status

This was written as a facebook status, but facebook wouldn't take it because it was too long so I am putting it here ...

It looks like facebook got rid of their notes, or at least early this morning half awake I am not finding them. This is probably more fit for a blog entry than a facebook status, but oh well, I'm here and so are you. Oh by the way I did finally get the blog sort of up to date in case you are interested. Much thanks to Lexie for the encouragement and a significant portion of the writing through the summer.

I had my back go out a couple of weeks ago and have been in pain like I haven't been since my back played the same trick on me half way through my time as a missionary in Korea 14 years ago. I am confident that I will get through the pain in less time and more smoothly than I did then, but it still isn't easy. The experience is making me a bit reflective. I've been up since about 4:30 mostly looking at the ceiling and thinking. A project I hope to get to some time, but will forgive myself if I don't, which I have been designing in my head this morning is a "belief mirror". Being a life member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and not ever really taking time to study other religions in any real depth, I don't have enough background to expand the project to the scope which I would like to get it by myself, but I think I could get a good start. The idea is to come up with a series of belief questions such as "Do you believe in God", "Do you believe God loves you" and so forth. Each question would allow a person a 0-10 rating to give them a range in answering. In my design the results would be private and the intention would be simply for a person to be able to make a snapshot of their current state of spirituality. While the results would be very interesting I would think it better to just leave it as a service that people could use as a way of exploring themselves rather than making the results anything to study or publish. It seems it would be nice to have a journal section on it and have people come back to it at a regular interval such as each year or maybe even each month to take a look at how their life view might be changing.

So as you might guess I have been running through some of those questions myself. With out the nifty little tool I have in mind writing someday I don't have a very clean picture of my results and as I put down earlier, I don't really intend to share the results or have the results shared. What I will share today as it relates to my current thoughts is that I am wondering about the purpose of pain.

I do believe in God as a creator. With that as a premise it follows that unless there was a design error, pain was intended. I have been going back and forth in my thinking as to whether pain increases one's sensitivity toward others or one's spirituality. My conclusion is that it can but it won't necessarily or automatically. I think it is as easy for a person to become bitter as to become loving, to become believing as to become agnostic. So I suppose in some ways it is simply accelerates the character development of an individual. On the other hand sometimes it seems that pain can be so overwhelming as in the cases when it leads to depression that it can just crush what would otherwise be a strong person. The same way there is not a level of physical conditioning that would prevent a person's physical demise if they were hit by a train traveling at 50 MPH it seems that there are levels of pain that could overcome a person at almost any level of "spiritual conditioning". I suppose a point of many of the stories in the scriptures is to talk about the people who didn't fail under stress, but does that mean there isn't an unpreventable failure point? I don't think I am anywhere close to that point right now, I've just been thinking lately that it is possible that one could exist. I really don't understand the combination of the church doctrines that "people are not tempted above what they are able to resist" and "no unclean thing shall enter into heaven". To state my confusion more clearly the New Testament teaches even thoughts can be sins. I know I have thoughts come to me even before it seems like I have a chance to resist them. It seems that I am pushed to unclean before the choice is even in front of me, or much in the same way that it would have been possible for the disappointingly too slow BYU cougars to beat TCU yesterday in the football game it didn't happen. In the same way there are a lot of times that I know it is possible I could have done something better, I just don't. I'm not sure where that leaves me with God. Then again, giving both teams an "A" game was it possible for BYU to beat TCU, should it have been?

Something slippery about the pain experience is that it is so easily forgotten. It is interesting as I have been going through these last experiences how many flash backs I have had to Korea. In some ways it has been reassuring. I have lived with some self doubt and still do with regards to my performance as a missionary. There were several days that I didn't even leave the house because my back hurt so bad. Being separated from the pain for a while I would find myself wondering if I was just weak and lazy at the time. Having my latest experience reminded me that indeed I may have been weak, but there really wasn't any other reasonable expectation of a person in the same physical condition. Pain will simply reach levels which are not tolerable and a person really can't even remember how bad they are unless they are in the middle of a similar experience. This forgetfulness of pain is well evidenced by the fact that there are several women who have more than one child, in fact if women do not average 2.1 children born a population will shrink in a modern industrial society. I am obviously doing a bit better now with respect to my pain as evidenced by the fact I am writing. In fact this episode has been different from the time I was in Korea in that the pain comes and goes. I have been able to enjoy some almost completely pain free time. Now I just have a slight headache which is just annoying and not worth the level of whining I'm doing now.

I'd really like to think I am learning something from my experience. It seems like too much cost to take on without some of reward. I feel like I am getting close to some sort of enlightenment, but not necessarily there. Writing sometimes helps clear things. As I have been writing an impression that returned to me that was part of my thinking along with my belief project was another project that I feel even more doubtful I'll ever get to, but would be nice... The project was to go through all of my facebook friends and maybe even a few of my friends who are facebook hold outs and give them a quick note to let them know something I appreciate about them. I do have some "friends" on facebook that I don't really know, but for the most part if you are reading this you are a person who has touched my life in a positive way and I give you a thanks for that from the bottom of my heart. The positive relations we are able to share with others are the most beautiful thing I have found in life. You are the wonderful part of my world. So as I said even though the chance of me overcoming my procrastination and personal inhibition of expressing myself to complete the project of telling you personally why you are meaningful to me is very low, know that you are and I appreciate you as a friend. Thank You!

September 13, 2009

Hoodoo?

Dan and I have been laughing all afternoon from the entertainment our older boys have provided. We got home from church and they were musing about whether or not Aaron and Julie received any "camp host questions" while we were gone. They were joking around and broke into an impromptu dialogue acting as "camper" and "camp host."

Dallin (asking with a goofy, dizzy look on his face): I have a question. Can I move from campsite 2 to campsite 10 in the horse camp?

Ty (pretending to look in a book, and acting very serious): Hmmm, I don't know, let me check the official camphost guidebook. Yes, it says right here you can move three times and then we kick you out."

I guess it's time to move on so the kids can pick up some other life-skill now that they have camp host under their belts.

 

Jacob - Where did my baby go?

Can he be one already? This has to have been the shortest year of my life! We invited some friends to come up to the lake and have cake and ice-cream to celebrate. I made Jacob a little cake to eat on his own, and made cupcakes for everyone else. There's just something gross about sharing a cake after someone has blown all over it that I can't handle. We put Jacob in the middle of the picnic table, sang happy birthday, and presented him his cake. He really surprized us when we put the cake in front of him. He is usually so excited about his food we thought he would dig right in, but we learned that he has some shy tendencies. There were so many kids staring at him, he was too intimidated to even poke at his cake. After everyone else started eating, he poked at it a little bit, but he never did eat very much.

After the cupcakes were gone, we all headed down to the lake for more fun and more friends. There were some other friends from the branch at the lake that had come to play. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the water and building sand castles.

 

When the Dad's away...

Dan will write about his hike climbing the North Sister with a group of friends. I'll tell the story of how the kids and I entertained ourselves while he was off playing. We dropped Dan off at his meeting spot and then met a group of other moms and kids at the Liddell's pond. The pond is the perfect size for the kids to put on their life-jackets and swim, take out a kayak or pedal boat, or zoom across the pond from the zip-line onto the island. For the little kids who want to hang out with the moms, there is a mini-trampoline on which they took turns jumping.

Of course, since Dan was gone, that put me in charge of compliance. I loaded up the cleaning supplies into the suburban so all five kids could go on rounds with me as I cleaned the campground and checked payments. We were hoping that some friends might come up to camp, so we hurried through the rounds as best as possible, while Dallin gave a report on the clouds. Unfortunately, the clouds won, and the friends stayed home because of rain.

Saturday morning my cheerful helpers loaded up and we did our jobs. We got home and made a fire for "Roman Soldier dinners" (tin foil dinners) for lunch. We were very happy to see Jodi Ford and her children come up to play. Jodi's husband, Barrett, was on the hike with Dan. They had brought their kayaks and were ready for a good time. We met them down at the lake and played all afternoon. The kids built a mote and caught frogs and a snake. The ground was hopping with little frogs by time they were done! I even took out a kayak for my first time. Jacob came with me, and other than not caring for the life-jacket, I think he really liked the ride. I know I enjoyed every minute! It got me thinking about overnight camping trips on an island somewhere for a few days.

We didn't know exactly when the men would come home, so Jodi watched the kids while I started evening rounds. She called Barrett to tell him where to meet us for dinner. Dan got home surprised, but happy, to have a party in full swing when he returned. We roasted hot dogs and smore's until it got dark. What a great way to spend a day!

 

Thanks Jerry

Just down the road from our campsite all summer was a little store that sold bait and tackle and rented boats. We had intended to rent a boat all summer to take out on the lake and just play around. Labor day we finally made it down to Jerry's boat rental. Since we had been the only neighbors all summer, he was nice to let us take two boats out for no charge. We had a really great time as the two boats played a little pirate game and chased each other and shouted things that the kids thought pirates would shout to one another. (Things like, those land-lubbers are gaining on us! - nothing inappropriate).

 

Just a small observation (if it's too preachy, just skip this part)

Of all the questions and comments we received all summer, being a bit of a novelty as camphosts with so many young children, many people seemed more surprised that we had a bible in our home than anything else. I was surprised each time someone would mention the bible as if it were a novelty of its own. Has our faith as a community become such that owning the word of God is noteworthy?

 

School starts again

This school year has had a great start! Without being pregnant, or taking care of a newborn, I find that I really do enjoy homeschooling the children more than I remembered. Natalyn started kindergarten this year, so I was concerned about how we would get all of the lessons taught during a day. So far so good. The kids have been on task, and I have had time to plan and organize fun activities to keep things fun and engaging. My favorite lessons so far have been:

our preposition hike

building an edible oasis

chemistry experiments

building roman pillar ruins out of cookie dough

recording the kids do a puppet show of Sinbad and the Valley of Snakes

We've had a lot of fun, and the kids have had a lot of positive energy.

Life in the trailer part 1

What is Life Like in the Trailer?

Now that a year has passed since moving into our humble abode, (I say humble smiling because even though it is very cozy, I feel more spoiled than ever before). we have figured out quite a few things and have a pretty good routine down for how things get taken care of with respect to water refills, propane, dumping, garbage, etc. The kids, Dallin and Tyrell especially, have the morning routine down pat. That doesn't mean they are always as quick or quiet as I would like (I'm sure they feel like I am always after them), but their help in putting away blankets and clothes is helpful. There are a few questions that I get asked more than others, so I decided to take some time and try to describe what life is like in our trailer, and on the road.

FAQ"'S

How do you sleep at night?

The most common question I'm asked is how we manage with a baby when he wakes up at night. The answer is that I live with 5 very heavy sleepers, and Jacob is not a fussy baby. Even as a newborn he didn't squawk a lot; he just cheeped a little and I would get up to feed him. Now he is sleeping through the nights just as well as the rest of them. (So why don't I get any sleep?) If he had the lung capacity and voice projection that Dallin did as a baby, then we might have needed to invest in heavy duty commercial earplugs for everyone. In fact, once we get through the commotion of unfolding the beds, getting out blankets, changing, and brushing teeth, things settle down a lot faster than they did back on Henry. I had a fear at the beginning that they would keep each other awake and partying, but the opposite has happened. When the lights go out, for the most part, they seem to realize it is time to go to sleep. With that said, the commotion of getting ready has increased, and I often have to count to myself, set a timer, or separate children as they clamor around each other and have spontaneous wrestling matches while they should be getting their beds made.

What is the hardest part?

I have what I call my, "crazy" times of each day. They are the morning and bedtime routines. Even Dan knows that if he wants me to respond or pay any attention at all, my "crazy" time is not the time to try talking. It just seems that the quicker we get breakfast on the table and the day started, the smoother the day goes. Once breakfast is served the chaos seems to die down and we can start to enjoy each other's company. With the night-time routine, after all the shuffling is taken care of and everyone is still, crazy time is over. Then we go into one of my favorite times of day, which is reading together as a family. We start by taking turns reading the scriptures, and then either Dan or I will read to Natalyn and Davey, and then read a few chapters out of a bigger book to everyone.

So, you must homeschool your kids. (Not a question, but the questions usually follow after that. Homeschooling is a whole FAQ on its own!)

My usual answer is that homeschool is a "love-hate" thing. I feel a huge responsibility being in charge of my children's education. I take that responsibility very seriously. I believe in exposing children to every type of learning method that is possible. I believe that if a child can read something, write about it, do experiments with it, manipulate it, skill and drill, and then play fun games to reinforce it, they will internalize it and become master of whatever subject they choose.

The love part of school is when this theory works and becomes reality and we are all working together enjoying each other's company learning. I love being able to play games with the kids that reinforce what they are learning. I love the fun we have at the beach playing in tide-pools identifying creatures, or in museums where history comes to life for them. I get a great charge when the children see something that excites them, like a bug, and then they go to all of their books to try to identify the exciting thing and learn as much about it as they can. Having one of the kids read out loud in a part of one of their science or history books because they find a particular section interesting and they want to share with everyone is just thrilling. I'll admit that I also enjoy how much I learn as I teach the kids.

The hate part of school is that we have many days that are just chug through days. Many days we struggle to trudge through the cirriculum and still hope we want to be around each other by the end of the day. I know that is normal, but after experiencing some really great days, the normal days can be hard to swallow. There are so many things to learn, and so many fun ways to present that information, but more often than not, we just scratch the surface in the fastest way possible to move onto the next subject. Enter the children and their different learning styles from the, "do your work as fast and sloppy as you can" approach to the, "stare at my work for five hours without touching it with a pencil," approach and one might sense the tension that can build on occasion as expectations don't meet reality.

Can anyone talk about something as important as schooling and children without addressing fears? My biggest fear (and it is not mice) is that when my children are adults they will be sitting in a jail cell or in a counselor's office talking to some proffessional about how their mom messed them up, while I'm locked up rocking back and forth in a padded room. (I don't really see that happening, but no one ever said fears are supposed to be based on reality). My second biggest fear is that I will be the weak link in our traveling lifestyle. As Natalyn is beginning kindergarten and will need more attention in her studies, (which to this point have been fun and unfocused) I sometimes think that if I'm going to avoid the padded room, then the kids might have to go back to public school. I'm really hoping that with a little bit more planning and organization of lesson plans I can avoid that possibility.

Please don't misunderstand if this seems all negative. I just don't want to give the wrong impression that homeschool is all rosy and perfect. There are some real concerns that we are consistently trying to address. Some women are naturally born patient and soft and quiet. I am working toward being one of those moms.

What cirriculum do you use?

We use the same cirriculum that the public schools in Idaho are using - Saxon math and Houghton Mifflin Reading. For science we have a series called, "Explore and Learn" that we use in combination with several experiment books. For social studies we have a wonderful book called, "The story of the World" that we use along with map skills workbooks and activity books about the countries and states. Rosetta Stone and Spanish for Dummies cover our foreign language. For art we have a few different books about drawing 3-D or cartoon characters that the kids love to practice with. Tyrell has especially developed a love of drawing lately. We have several learning games for math, logic, phonics, and spelling that we use once a week on, "Fun-day Friday."

What did you do with all of your stuff?

This is an interesting question to me because a very major part of our decision to live a more, "simple" lifestyle was because we felt like, "stuff" was beginning to control our lives. An interesting phenomenon with people is that they get a lot of space, they fill it with stuff, and then they need a bigger space. We think we own our stuff, but if you stop and think about how much money a person spends to get their stuff, repair it, store it, maintain it, clean it, sort it, rearrange, and even use it - the obvious conclusion is that the stuff really owns us.

With that said, we do still have some stuff we weren't ready to part with. Some of our food storage is stored at my parent's home, and some of our other things are stored on Dan's parent's/grandma's property. A lot of what we own we are now ready to part with and just need to figure out what to do with it. For now it sits and owns us while we discuss whether we should sell it, give it away, throw it away, or just let it sit and collect dust until we become dust and our children inherit the sentence of possession.

How do you get anytime alone as a couple? (wink, wink)

Only one person has been bold enough to actually ask this question, but I know it has been burning in the back of many minds. It will just have to continue burning.

Mt. Hood Climb

Overcoming first impressions

When I first met Aaron Varney, my first impression was a bit of disgust and a lot of disappointment. Those of you who know Aaron Varney are no doubt highly confused by this, so I'll explain ... I was 6 or 7 years old, and I was told that I had a new cousin! My parents were both very excited and their excitement quickly transferred to to me. I am sure it wasn't a very long drive, most likely from Layton to Provo Utah. I don't remember very many details, but I do remember being all but ready to explode with anticipation of getting to meet my new cousin. When we finally got to the Varney's apartment, there was Aaron laying in a little ball fast asleep. It became quickly apparent that it was not going to be very interesting to play with my new cousin. Somehow, prior to meeting Aaron I had missed the detail that my new cousin was a baby! My parents assured me that he would grow up and I would be able to play with him later and I gave a nod and harbored the, "yeah like in forever from now," kind of a thought, after all, to a 7 year old it does take a full lifetime to get to be 7 years old.

I am pleased to say that Aaron has long since passed the stage of development at which he became interesting to play with. Even with a relatively large age difference for kids, we had a lot of fun together growing up when ever the families visited. As I was looking at the pictures of the climb up Mt. Hood, I got a laugh thinking about the difference between my first thoughts of Aaron and the way things are now, especially considering that he he has two kids similar ages to two of my own.

Hood Climb

I don't remember if it was my idea or Aaron's idea to climb Mt. Hood this spring, but it was one of those ideas that really didn't matter who the idea originated with, because we both quickly held the idea so strongly. To speak back to first impressions a little, the first time I saw Mt. Hood, I just about went off the road because I had my eyes fixed on the mountain rather than driving. The mountain is absolutely gorgeous. Mt. Hood was the first of the Cascades that I had ever seen. I hadn't ever seen a mountain stand so tall all by itself before. The green orchards below giving way to a snow and rock peak was absolutely breathtaking. From that moment on I have strongly considered, and still do consider living in the shadow of Mt. Hood. That moment also of course seeded the thought of, "I need to climb that thing."

People who don't climb much may think the word "need" was a bit of an overstatement and I will concede that in the most absolute sense it is. I use the word "need" in the way a person does when they say they need cloths to wear, they need three meals a day or they need a dry place to sleep. Those too are things that a person can continue their existence without, but the absence of which would beg the question of what kind of life are they living. I'm sure if I ever get to the Himalayas or even Mt. Mckinley, I will want to climb them, but would be able to contain that desire with a dose of rational about other pursuits in life that may be more fulfilling than what could become a last attempt at a mountain. Mt. Hood jumps to need status because the mountain is small enough to not be a direct Russian Roulette style gamble with one's life to take a try for it, yet the mountain is large enough to be highly satisfying. The simplest route up the mountain is straight forward enough that I felt very comfortable with it. The majority of the mountain's casualties I learned about came from what I consider highly avoidable circumstances.

As plans for the climb developed my brother, Robert (the one I climbed the Grand Teton with) and one of Aaron's friends, Mike were added to the list of people in the party. I was very excited that Rob was coming. I didn't think to invite him because he lived so far away, but it turns out that a direct flight from Salt Lake to Portland isn't too expensive these days and Rob's desire to climb Mt. Hood (and wife permission factor) was high enough to pay for the ticket. Aaron's friend Mike concerned me a little because I had never met him before and of course had never climbed with him. Aaron's description of how badly Mike wanted to get to the summit concerned me a little more. I am a very strong preacher of, "summits are nice and parking lots are mandatory" when it comes to the result of a mountain climb. Especially on big mountains there are times when one just needs to turn around. Meeting Mike relieved all of my concerns about him. Mike proved to be very level headed, highly personable and in general great to be around. He is an automatic invite to any other hikes or climbs I do. We decided that Aaron was in the best shape of any of us in the group so he was awarded the honor of carrying the rope. I felt awkward about not carrying my own rope, but between fears of slowing the group down and memories of knee pain. I was able to ease my conscience pretty quickly and enjoy that someone else was toting the rope.

The risk of ice and rock fall near the summit of Mt. Hood mandate that a prudent approach to a one day trip to the summit and back starts between midnight and 2 AM the morning of the climb. The early start allows climbers to be on and off the summit before the sun rises and starts melting things up high. As a group we decided that we would wake a midnight and try to be on the trail and climbing by one. As a safety measure a free self- issued permit is required to climb Mt. Hood. The permit requires filling out details of where you are going, what you have with you and when you expect to be back. I found it interesting that included in the checklist of things you were taking with you along with the listings for things such as ice axes, crampons, ropes, belay devices, cell phones, map etc ... was common sense. At nearly one in the morning facing a huge pitch black snowy mountain that none of us had ever climbed it made the most sense to us not to list "common sense" as an item in our possession, so we left that box blank.

Mt. Hood is a very popular climb which simplified the route finding and ascent quite a bit. In the dark pretty much all that was needed was to follow footsteps and look up the mountain for head lamps ahead of us to get the general direction of where we were headed. We did use maps and GPS's to verify that the headlamps were indeed using our intended route. As an all snow route there aren't really any switch backs on the climb up the mountain. The climb makes a pretty much straight shot from the timberline lodge to the summit. For people who want details about our route you can do a Google search for "Mt. Hood South Side Route." I think you will get about 20,000 matches to blog entries, many with a crazy level of detail, which I have no intention of providing right now. I don't want to understate or overstate the route. I think staircase is an apt description of our climbing experience on hood with the given snow conditions in as much as we were able to follow frozen footprints up the mountain. Every now and then we would break through and sink into the footprints causing for a little more effort in the climbing, but for the most part the footing was good and was mostly about the effort of making an ascent. Staircase may under describe the ascent a little in that most staircases contain between 1 flight in home or small office and 30 flights of stairs in a giant building where as the Mt. Hood climb if in stairs would be somewhere in the range of 500-600 flights of stairs depending on how large each flight was. Even though it is straight forward, it is still a lot of climbing.

By the time we didn't need our headlamps for light any more we were well above the ski lift. We were very pleased to start to see some of the view. The most spectacular feature of the morning was the shadow of Mt. Hood which seemed to stretch all the way to the ocean. If the shadow had been pointed toward Mt. Jefferson it would have come close to touching it, so I have an easy time believing the shadow was 80 miles long.

At around 9000 feet I started getting nervous that we were going too slow. We were getting a lot of light, but weren't hearing things fall yet. We picked up the pace a bit toward the summit. At around 10,000 feet we met the first people on the way down. It turned out that they had not summited, but rather had someone in their group take poorly to the altitude. We could see across what is called the Hog's Back to see that there was a very large collection of climbers gathered for the final approach to the summit. We decided to put our crampons on early so that we wouldn't need to stop when we got to the steep pitch in front of the summit. After another group going down complaining about being sick passed us, I told Rob that I didn't have rational input to offer with respect to a decision about our own turn around. Getting the crampons on and an ice axe in my hand, looking at the ridge leading to the summit left me with much less than a clear head. I wanted up and I wanted up badly. I am reasonably sure that if I saw something that I recognized as an unacceptable risk I would have had the discipline to turn around, something like vomiting and light headedness, however wasn't going to be the thing to stop me, especially in light of how quickly we would be able to get below 10,000 feet.

It turned out the route was very nice and avoided the most ominous cliffs, which would be likely to dump large amounts of rock and ice. With that said the climbers above would kick down quite a bit of ice and even a camera case at one point, so we did get good use of our helmets. We also, with the help of someone who seemed to know the mountain, found a chute, that for some reason other climbers weren't using, that saved us a lot of exposure bypassing a part of the climb know as the "cat walk". Even though the climbing was super easy we decided to rope up, because an uncontrolled fall would either put a person in a fumeral or off a holy hallelujah of a steep slope into a cliff. I took the lead of the rope, because I had logged the most time with crampons and an ice axe and had the confidence in my own ability to stop if someone went into a slide.

At the top of the steep part, it was a simple traverse to the summit, I switched the lead over to Aaron to let him be the first to the summit, as a way of thanking him for carrying the rope.

We had very clear weather and the view from the top of Mt. Hood was everything one might imagine from the bottom it might be. We could see over a hundred miles in every direction. The contrast of the green valleys and snow covered peaks was stunning. The summit itself surprised me in how pretty it was. Even though Mt. Hood is very heavily climbed when on the summit, I still felt like I was in a very privileged, special place.

Aaron lead the way down the steep part. He was a bit unsure about it at first, but got into it right away. I took the back of the rope to act as an anchor in case anyone slipped. Some people actually did use snow pickets,but they were over kill for the situation. With the snow condition I couldn't see any situation that would warrant their need. I think it may have been a mountaineering class that was simply teaching people how to put them in.

It was about 9:30 AM as we were coming down the steep slope off the summit. We had read that one wants to be off by 10AM. Indeed relative to the climb up, there was a lot of ice falling. With the exception of a couple of baseball sized rocks that went zinging down, nothing was more than what I consider an annoyance, but it did keep things interesting. We would either yell or hear climbers yell ice, and then dive into a self arrest position to hide under our helmets as the ice went down. I got hit in the backpack with a piece that I think would have hurt if it had hit me, Aaron got hit in the shoulder with a piece that he thought would have been a lot worse if it hadn't made its main impact on his strap padding. Rob got tagged in the leg and I think Mike got hit as well, but I am not sure. Again, everything was small so it was a bumps and bruises risk, not a life risk so I felt very comfortable with it. All the same I was very happy when we made it up Hog's Back and were out of falling ice. As a post note ... When I got home I found a few unaccounted for bruises on my legs when I got home, so I am sure I did get hit more frequently and harder than I had realized when climbing.

On the way down we were very pleased to find that a part of the steep part of the climb that had been a real pain coming up offered a great route for a glissade (slide) on the way down. My pants were a bit too sticky to allow sliding on my backside, but the mountain was open enough that I was able to put my pack on my chest and slide down head first on my back. I would turn around before I got going to fast and a couple times was able to maintain the slide in a seated position, otherwise I would simply resume to my back. When the glissading didn't work something tha also made the decent very nice, other than the obvious fact that it was down hill instead of up, was that the snow had gotten much softer. This made i such that our feet were taking about six inches of travel from the time they hit the snow to the time they stopped. This made the effect of having pillows on the bottoms of our boots, making what I believe is the easiest on the knees decent of a mountain I have ever had in my life.

We made it to the bottom at about 1PM for a total of 12 wonderful hours on the mountain. It was a great joy and privilege to have such a great little adventure.

August 2 2009

The year is more than half over so I am going to give myself a mid year evaluation of my New Year's resoultions with the hope that I might keep track of them and change things if I am very far off course in the way I have been managing my life in pursuit of those goals.

Dan's mid year review of New Year's resolutions

Goal	Rating	Descripton
Complete training programs for and race in a 5K race and a 10K race.	good	My training program for the 5K race started and stopped a few times and I got so sick the week before the race I wasn't sure I was going to do it. In the end the race was one of the most fun I have ever run. Something funny about the race was the organizers made a mistake and didn't clearly mark the turn around point so the race wound up being more of a 7 or 8K race. I felt great that I was able to run the whole thing even with the extra distance and feel like a 10K will be a very managable distance confining myself to the goal of simply running the whole thing as opposed to acheiving a particular time.
Establish a monthly income above $2700 while working about 30 hours per week remotely.	poor	Yuck, I am holding out hope that I can get game sales to ramp quickly, but I don't really think it is practical to expect them to ramp that quickly. Income is becoming a larger and larger source of stress to me, however at this point it is not enough of a stress to me to prompt me to change course. I would rather be poor following my own dreams than to be rich as a slave to another person's dreams. With that said I am open to the idea of working for someone else again, just not enthused by the idea. There are companies that make some very nice educational software that seems to line up reasonably with my idea of how educational software should work.
Make one visit to Mexico in 2010.	N/A	I think I meant 2009 here, it turned out that there was a travel advisory against going to Mexico because of the drug war. We did get the family into Korea town in LA, which fulfilled a lot of my desire for the trip to Mexico.
Learn to locate the Andromeda galaxy on a clear night.	poor	I haven't been studying astronomy lately.
Learn to identify 10 constellations which I currently can not.	poor	I haven't been studying astronomy lately.
Learn how to find the planets which are viable without a telescope or binoculars.	poor	I haven't been studying astronomy lately.
Finish the Spelling Castle game and get it visible in the market with sales in excess of 1000 copies. (The game isn't financially viable at this point but it will mean that I have at least sold it to someone not directly related to me).	fair	The Spelling Castle game is very close to being ready for market. I don't know if 1000 copies sold before Christmas will happen, but it definately could. I have already sold 2 copies so that only leaves 999 more to sell in order to exceed 1000 could. People who see the game seem to like it. If tomorrow goes well I'll have a pretty cool little flash description of it up on http://www.mindjumpsoftware.com.
Get the kids to at least one major museum or educational site such as the Monterey Aquarium or the Lebrea Tar Pits.	done	We were able to get to both the Lebrea Tar Pits and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We also were able to make it to several fantastic National Parks.
Direct 2% of my income toward combating world hunger. (I really hope this does become a significant amount of money).	poor	I had forgotten all about this good intention. I will turn course and get something done about it. So far 2% of my income this year isn't very much, but it really is important to me to make sure that the money I do get is used properly.
Have one month in this year preferably an early one in which I do 30 sit ups and 30 push ups every day.	poor	The chance to do this early in the year is over. This is also a goal I had forgotten about. I won't be able to get the goal in August because I already missed yesterday, so I guess I will use August to get ready for September. If I make it to my birthday with 30 sit ups and 30 push ups every day that will take some of the sting off the awareness of wearing yet one more year off the non existant warrenty on my life that comes with a birthday.
Maintain or improve my current body composition. (This will be tough to measure because I don't know my current weight or body fat percentage, but if my church pants don't fit next January I put this one in the toilet)	good	I'm a guy so I naturally exagerate how good I look by a factor of about 1000. Just this morning I was looking in the mirror thinking that I am looking more trim than I used to. With that said after ending my fast today I loaded up on carmel shortbread squares and now I feel like the Pilsbury Dough Boy.
Do an outing with each of my four oldest children at least once a month.	good	I haven't been keeping track of the outings, but I have been getting some great time in with the kids. Something nice about camp host work is the kids understand and are capable of most of the work. We have been giving them turns to do rounds with us, which give good opportunities for talking.
Write updates in the blog at least once a month, with at least 20 updates through out the year.	fair	This one I'll have to count to see if I am on track. Counting Lexie's entries I think I am. The last couple of months have been a challenge with respect to uploading the blog. With a great burst of luck and inspiration, I'll have it up tomorrow.
Give an accounting of the goals in early January of 2010.	good	Getting in this mid year accounting gives me a great start on an account in early January.

Summer 2009

If a person looked up mileage from Quartzsite, AZ to Sisters, OR it would say 1085.4 miles.  We managed to take almost 4000 miles to make that trip!  We didn’t exactly stick to the, “optimal mileage” route. 

“At T minus 60 there will be no delays or interruptions expected or accepted…”

I think we left off from our last writing playing in the surf at Jalama beach waiting for the rocket to launch from Vandenberg Air force Base.  The closest we could get to the rocket was about 6 miles from the launch pad.  There were bleachers set up with a big speaker transmitting all of the final checks and tests and, of course, the countdown.  We’ve waited so long to see a rocket launch we were all very excited.  As they started the final countdown I felt like I was sitting at the top of a roller-coaster waiting to go down.  The air was electric!  Although it was all over very quickly, we were not let down.  We saw a burst of fire, heard the explosion, and then watched the trail (that for all intents and purposes didn’t look any different from a jet stream) until it disappeared.

Waiting for the rocket

Take it from the locals – they know!

We’ve learned a few things on the road, and one of those things is to follow the local’s advice.  At church on Sunday we were given very good advice to visit the La Purimisa mission and a Danish town, Solvang, with instructions at which bakery to try the pastries.  What a ball!  As we walked through the mission (a fully restored catholic mission that was self-sustaining in its prime) we pretended to be walking through the free-commots from, Taran Wanderer of the Chronicles of Prydain (the Black Cauldron series).  We had a good time talking about Hyevid the blacksmith and looking at the loom of the weaver woman.  We’ve been talking about someday settling down and having a farm of sorts that could be self-sustaining, so we had a good time talking and planning.  The garden at the mission was very different from gardens I am used to.  If it hadn’t been posted what all of the plants were, and how they were used, I wouldn’t have known it was more than decorative landscaping.

We topped off the day with Danish Desserts.  YUM!  We sampled many varieties of butter cookies, shared a filled, “waffle” and had a cream cheese filled croissant.  We ate the treats at a park that had a bust of Hans Christian Anderson, so Tyrell read us the story of the Matchbox girl.  What a sad story; hardly my idea of a child’s fairytale.

We enjoyed a trip to a cute little Danish area.

Otters are Awesome

Monterey Bay has an amazing aquarium.  We were able to spend the day there with the children, and we were not disappointed.  One of the more impressive exhibits were the sardines.  Not much imagination is required to see how the makers of, “Finding Nemo” came up with their use of sardines in the movie. 

From the displays they have on preserving oceans and the animals the inhabit them, the kids are still noticing in grocery stores if they see something, such as rockfish, that is on the AVOID list, and try to talk us into buying fish, like tilapia, if they remember it  was on the BEST CHOICES list.

The shark exhibit was fascinating as well, along with the seahorses, the docent presentations, the penguins, the touch pools, and – well you can see we had a great time!

Exploring the Montery Bay Aquarium.

Rock and Waterfalls

I grew up hearing about Yosemite as being a very popular National Park, and after marrying Dan I knew about it as a very popular place to rock climb, but I really didn’t know what to expect.  Anybody who knows me well, knows that I am a waterfall junkie.  It was a joy to see all of the waterfalls Yosemite had to offer.  The first trail we took was a short walk to Bridal Veil Falls.  The kids loved getting sprayed by the mist and it was a warm enough day that we all dried very quickly. 

Dan would have loved to hike up Half Dome, but he recognized that the children were still a little young.  He’s planned a tentative trip for when the older boys are in their teens.  We hope to make it back before then, though.  As for the rock climbing, he couldn’t peel his eyes off El Capitan, but was happy to stick to a safe, family friendly route up Swan Slab.  The three older children made it all the way to the anchor!  Their climbing technique and strength has improved over the last year and a half. 

We had a fun surprise as we were packing up our things to leave our rock climbing.  The rangers had suggested that a black bear that frequented the area might come our way looking for food in our pack.  They assured us the bear was friendly enough, just to shew her away.  Sure enough, the bear came along, about 20 yards away from us, like a big dog begging at the dinner table.  The kids quickly gathered in around us as we had talked about and we shouted for her to leave.  She took one look back and then loped off like a sad little puppy that got told no. We saw two more bears from the safety of a vehicle the next day.

The kids have started collecting Junior Ranger badges at National and State Parks.  In Yosemite National Park this program was especially fun because in order to earn their badge the kids just had to go on a ranger led hike designed especially for children.  They walked along looking for signs of animal life.  The ranger had a lot of energy, something I was out of.  She guided the children and taught them with her enthusiasm, and I was so grateful for the break. 

Our hike up to Vernal Falls included an awesome shower on steep steps. The trail is about a 3 mile round trip.  Only the people who thought to wear rain gear didn’t get soaked on the hike.  Kudos to the kids, especially Davey.  It was his hardest hike ever, and he did awesome!

Things in the Yosemite Valley don't really fit into pictures.

Under Bridal Veil Falls.

I loved stone trail on the hike up to the falls!

We were able to do a little rock climbing.

On our way out of Yosemite we had been thinking to go the quickest route to Crater Lake in Oregon and then end our trip in Sisters, OR.  Another thing I have learned, a little earlier in life, is that my mom often has very good advice.  When she first suggested visiting Redwood National Park, my reaction was to think, “But we saw the redwoods at Sequoia, how different can they be?”  I’m glad she encouraged us to go – and that we took her advice.  The answer to my question is very different!  The trees are much taller, and most have faded to the color gray over time.  It gave me a new perspective to learn that only 3% of these amazing creations are still standing, and that is only because people took military action to protect them.  I’m so glad they did. 

On our hike through the Big Trees loop we heard a sound like a bull elephant.  I’ve heard enough bears, and seen enough in Yosemite, to not want to come up on a bear by surprise in the thick cover of trees.  Dan agreed we should turn around.  We heard another sound that made Dan think the limbs were creaking and it wasn’t an animal after all.  We turned around anyway.  We had fun talking about our, “Bigfoot sighting” that we missed because we turned around.

Right through the heart of Big Foot country!

We heard some strange noises in the woods.

Notice the relative size of the kids and the tree trunk.

The redwoods are amazing!

Oregon has some gorgeous coast line.

 

Grant’s Pass and New Friends

I can’t miss writing about Grant’s Pass.  As a rule we take Sundays off of traveling.  We make a point to go to church and be in a place where we can park to observe the Sabbath.  We happened to go to church in the town of Grant’s Pass, Oregon.  I have never been more overwhelmed with kindness!  I lost count of how many people greeted us before and after we sat down.  By the end of church we had been invited to move into town several times, and we had two dinner invitations for different nights.  Since we didn’t really have a hard schedule to keep we thought it would be inconsiderate not to accept.  We could use the time between appointments to catch up on laundry and errands.  Sunday night the kids had a blast playing with the Fisher’s children, we enjoyed delicious food, and by the end of the meal we were invited to sleep in their driveway with electricity, refill our water tank, and do laundry at their house.  We took them up on all but the laundry. 

The next night, at the Page’s, the kids got to swim in their pool while brother Page visited with us and cooked chicken on the grill.  Sister Page had a special bond with Jacob.  After dinner they got the bunnies out for the kids to feed and play with.  I think David and Natalyn picked enough clover for the rabbits for a week!  Again we were invited to stay overnight with showers, electricity, and water.  (We did sleep in the driveway and wondered if we were becoming bums, but decided that it was practical because it was past the kid’s bedtime and since we hadn’t asked – or even hinted we could use a place to park, we could excuse the notion a bit.  They are just super kind people).

Crater Lake, a Snow Park?

Crater Lake was nothing like I expected!  We arrived to 5 feet of snow.  Unlike every other park I have been to, this is a winter park.  People go to Crater Lake to cross-country ski, snowmobile, snowshoe, and camp in snow caves.  Dallin was especially thrilled to get the coats out and go sledding.  He felt like we had denied him an inherent right all winter by living in a place without snow!  I was glad we could accommodate him while knowing that the snow was as temporary as a couple hours drive away.  We did get a beautiful look at the lake and learned that it is the deepest in North America.  Tyrell really impressed the Ranger with his knowledge about the place.  He learned it all on his own, too, by reading the displays in the visitor center.

On our way into Sisters we drove by Smith Rock just to take a peek.  Of course, by the end of the day, after we had climbed something on the cinnamon slab, and all had a turn, we realized that we would need to get a better look soon!

We were surprised to find snow at the Crater Lake.

Crater Lake is beautiful.

A little summer sledding.

Smith Rock is an amazing place.

How far can Dan pull the Trailer on a Bike?

We were so excited to get all set up at Sisters.  We even washed the suburban and the trailer and deep cleaned our, “garage.”  Dan ran into town (we were camped about 8 miles out of town in the National Forest) and the suburban refused to start.  I was pretty proud of myself for correctly diagnosing a broken fuel pump.  Of course, it was Saturday of Memorial weekend so all of the garages were closed until Tuesday.  Sisters did not offer anywhere to rent cars, but did rent bikes so Dan rented a bike in town and had a very steep uphill 8 mile bike ride to get back home to us.  The sheriff told him he could keep the suburban where it was until Tuesday. 

We had a wonderful church for the family at home. 

Tuesday morning Dan got to see how well the brakes on the bike worked as he went down the “trucks use lower gears” hill to meet the tow-truck to take him into Bend, OR.  We were grateful we have towing insurance. 

Since they had to order the fuel pump from Washington, Dan needed to find a place to stay overnight.  We were both grateful that he was able to locate his cousin Jenifer Harris that we had met at the last Gordon family reunion.  Her family took good care of him while he was in town.  I was grateful that he was able to let me know he would be spending the night before my cell phone died.

I’ve heard that some people have a thing with watches that they can’t wear a wristwatch without it breaking.  I seem to have the same type of phenomenon with cell phones.  Fortunately, if you want to look at it that way, we’ll be out of signal range until September, so a phone won’t do me any good anyway.

Dan came back Wednesday afternoon with a working Suburban.  The kids and I were just heading out for a little hike, so he was able to join us on the trail that Natalyn and David found.  The deer at our spot didn’t seem to mind us at all and came very close to the trailer.  We were surprised how close they let us come while we were on our hike as well.  Deer are such pretty animals.

Not going to work!

We got set up in our campsite at Camp Creek near Mt. Hood just before Aaron, Rob, and Mike pulled in.  It was a beautiful spot and I was very happy that they had big dumpsters.  The biggest trick I have found with free camping is trying to find a place to put the trash.  The kids did an awesome job of cleaning up the National Forest spot so we had an abnormally large amount of trash with us.  Of course, Camp Creek isn’t free camping, but it was almost worth the fee to dump the garbage!

Mt. Hood.

We were happy that Aaron invited us to visit at his house for the weekend and to go to church with his family.  Julie’s parents were there as well.  We had a wonderful barbeque and the kids had fun playing with their cousins.  We really enjoyed relaxing and visiting with them.  We were also grateful to them for letting us park in front of their house for the weekend. 

Baby steps

Jacob took advantage of the carpet and extra space in the Varney’s living room to take his first official crawling steps!  He’s been pretty happy with his new mode of transportation.  We have to watch him carefully because he keeps an eye on the door.  He’s determined to go headfirst down the steps!

On the subject of Jacob – he has been popping out teeth like popcorn.  Since he turned nine months old, he has grown a new tooth every week and a half.  As soon as one is all the way in, the next begins.

Just a Little Further…

No one can really blame us for heading toward Mt. St. Helen’s instead of back to Sisters, can they?  What else could we do?  From Aaron’s house it was about an hours drive to get to Ape Cave at Mt. St. Helen’s.  When Tyrell was a year old we went to the visitor center side of the state park, so I was excited to see this side of the park.  We were prepared this time so we could go inside the lava tube.  We all donned our headlamps and went in.  Natalyn was delighted when she realized we were underground.  The cave has two formations we located, the meatball and the railroad tracks.  We did the, “easy” part of the cave so quickly we took a vote and the majority voted to take the, “hard” trail as well.  Dan helped carry Davie because he had been voting for a nap.  There were a lot of boulders to scramble over, and it was twice as long, but we did it!  We all felt like explorers by time we were through.

The next day we went to the other side of the park to get a better view of the crater and visit the visitor centers.

We had fun exploring the ape caves.

At Mt. St. Helen's visitor's center.

After a lot of discussion we decided not to do the just a couple hours farther north to get to Seattle.  A person is just not able to do everything even if they try!  Had we gone to Seattle we would have been near Vancouver, which is just down the road from Prince Rupert, which is just down the channel from Juneau, which is just below everything we had to turn around without seeing last summer…

Say Cheese!

Tillamook, OR isn’t that much further out of route to get back to Mt. Hood than just going straight there.  It was the only route we saw with a cheese factory stop as well.

We were all talking about what we were going to order for dinner, (yes, we had decided to splurge and eat at their café) when we started seeing signs for Lewis and Clark National Park.  Dan wanted to know if he should take the exit or keep going.  I asked the kids if any of them could tell me about Lewis and Clark.  The answer was less than satisfactory so Dan turned into the National Park. 

We were thrilled with our timing because a school group was there and they were just getting ready to do a musket display and telling stories about the expedition.  We were even more thrilled the next morning when we were let in free to the interpretive center because we were considered to be a school group!  What a great place!  I remember spending a long time in fourth grade Idaho history learning about Lewis and Clark, but I realized that I really had no idea what they were all about until we made this stop.  Please, feel free to ask any of my children who Lewis and Clark were.

A great Lewis and Clark program and some great camera timing by Lexie.

Inside the interpretive center.

Take Two

Off for cheese again.  After we got on the road again, Dallin exclaimed, “I hope we don’t have to make another emergency National Park exit!”

 We made it to the factory in time to have a late lunch and early dinner.  The kids were glued to the window watching the assembly line and learning about the different steps of production.  At one point Tyrell exclaimed, “I don’t like cheese, but this is cool!”  He was even brave enough to try the squeaky cheese.  He didn’t like it either, but the rest of us agreed that the vintage white extra sharp was worth tasting! 

Dallin especially caught on to the aging process of cheese and noticed the difference in taste with how long it had been aged.  He was amazed to learn that good cheese can’t be made in one day.

While we were eating our ice-cream, a couple came over to visit with us.  They were impressed with the children and had been watching them eat their ice-cream.  They suggested a county park to stay overnight.  Once again, the locals were right.  Since it was indeed a great little park and happened to be free fishing weekend we decided to stay through the weekend and took a break from traveling.

We were disappointed to learn that the fishing on the river was on a catch and release basis, but still had a good time getting out to fish.  The river was very beautiful.  In the end the catch and release policy didn’t inhibit us any in that there wasn’t any catch to release.  Part of the lack of catch was due to only having one over sized lure that had hooks on it.  The other pole we had simply had a stick attached to it to give the kids practice casting.  The kids were quite certain they got some nibbles on the stick. We did have enough fun that we decided to buy fishing licenses so that we would be able to go out again during the summer.

Mt. Hood

We had been anxious to get to the Varney’s after Dan’s climb, so we didn’t stop at the lodge, or do much exploring around the Mt. Hood area.  We decided to go back and give the area a little bit more time.  The lodge is a National monument so we started there.  Dan showed us the route he took up the mountain, which really got me thinking that when the kids are older he’ll have to go up again, with me.  I fell asleep through the movie about the lodge, and their, “museum” was not much more than a display of old door knobs.  The kids were disappointed not to be allowed to play in the filthy snow. 

The camp host shared a pamphlet on Wildwood with us.  We decided to see what that was all about after lunch.  We were very pleasantly surprised.  David led us on the path by following the arrows to the underwater viewing area.  Along the way the kids gathered armfuls of cotton that had blown down from the trees.  They gloried in their, “snow” that didn’t melt.  Tyrell started to sing, “PHAT Dippin’, a comical song by Rhett and Link, which glorifies swimming with cloths on, as we walked into the underwater viewing area to see the small fish fry.  We had a good time trying to identify the little Chinook and Steelhead that were in the river.

We saw a brown sign marking a national fish hatchery on our way back to Sisters, so of course we had to stop and see what was available to see.  We were excited that we showed up on a day that they were harvesting the salmon.  We saw up close and personal how they sort, count, and harvest the fish.  We were the only group there, so the workers let us stand right next to them and look over their shoulders while they worked.  I’ve been to a lot of hatcheries, but I’ve never seen so much happening at a hatchery before. 

Home in the Meadow

We started our job (technically Dan started his job as camp host, the kids and I are just along for the free camping).  The meadow is a gorgeous place where deer frequent.  The kids built a great fort with the fallen branches and logs in a little grove of trees.  We took out their plastic toy food and had fun walking through the meadow, hiding the toy food and finding it again pretending we were travelers that had to search for the food, build our own shelter, and get water from the stream (no, we did not drink from the stream).  Natalyn and Tyrell really had fun pretending they were hunting and making clothing and blankets from the hides, and drying jerky.  It reminded me of a book I read as a child, based on a true story of some pioneer children whose parents were ambushed by Indians and so they had to finish the journey on their own.  I think it was called, Eight Alone, but I’m not sure.  I’ve tried finding it so Tyrell can read it, but I haven’t been able to.  Anyone who might know about the book, I would be very grateful if you could let me know the title or author so I can find it.

We’re not too far away from Bend where there is some really good shopping to be had.  My shoes had completely worn through, and it was time to get a new pair.  We went to a running shoe store, Fleet Feet to look at and try on shoes.  We were at the point where Dan and I were deciding if we should keep looking, wait and think, or buy the pair I liked.  David heard us talking and chimed in, “Wind her up, and let her go!” Speaking of David, he informed me that, “My name is not Davy, it’s David!”  He corrects anyone who forgets.  Who gave him permission to grow up so fast?

Our camp in the meadow.

David fishing.

The meadow is very beautiful.

The kids were very excited to do camp host work.

Camp site #5 in the meadow.

Three days later…

We were happy that Hoodoo, the company who manages the campground, agreed to let us have the whole week to travel to our family reunion.  We passed through Boise, ID on our way to Swan Valley, where the reunion took place.  Just before we got into Boise, we gave Cody and Caureen Miller a call to see if we could stop by and visit.  Cody and Dan were in the Electrical Engineering program together at U of I.   What fun it was to finally meet their two darling children!  They made us a delicious lunch and we had a super visit!

We had a nice visit in Idaho Falls with Grandma Meikle on our way through Idaho Falls.  I always have a fun time watching the kids play with the same toys I did as a kid and have just as much fun as I had.  Except for Jacob; he hated the jack-in-the-box.  I also have fun watching them grow using grandma as a measuring stick, as my brothers and sisters and I did when we were young.

What’s the difference between a horror house and a haunted house?

This is the question that Dallin asked me as we were driving.  I answered that I really didn’t think there was much of a difference, that they just had different names.  He insisted that horror houses were much worse, even awful, so I stated that he must be thinking of a whore house (yes, I’m very open with my children).

“What’s that,” he asked.  I answered, “When a woman sells her body to a man.”

Dallin’s eyes got as wide as saucers, “Is that why there are so many chopped up body parts in horror houses?”

Family Reunion

The bi-annual Gordon family reunion started June 25.  We stopped at Thornton to see Grandma Marler and meet up with Dan’s parents and meet Malcom (Naomi and Patrick’s little cutie).  After lunch, the family split up in three different vehicles to go to the Avery ranch where the reunion was being held.  I should have known that Ray would let Dallin drive.J

As always, there was way too much food, and it was all good.  Like Dallin commented, “I want to keep eating, but I know I am full.”  Dan and I stayed up way too late visiting with Rob and Becca the first night, but it was really fun to talk without interruptions and sample the caramel shortbread squares without getting caught by little eyes.

Two years seems to fly by so quickly; I was surprised at how young the children looked in the video of the last reunion.

As usual, Aunt Jessine really outdid herself with the crafts.  Natalyn looks forward to the crafts the most.  She spent all morning with me decorating balls and making door hangars.  David held his own with the crafts for quite a while also.  I enjoyed spending the time together with the younger kids.

Visiting with the Varney cousins is always a treat.  Emily has me convinced that the backpack I want for Jacob is an ergo-baby.  He has pretty much outgrown his front pack.  Dan had a great time getting to know Kalon, talking about business ideas.  Sara and I had fun talking about babies and traveling.  I wish her the best of luck with the rest of her pregnancy.

Friday night a hailstorm started just as dinner was getting started.  The hailstones were about the size of small marbles and really made a great sound bouncing off the tin roof of the shelter.  It was really fun watching people’s reactions as they laughed and covered their ears, or in Jacob’s case, not sure whether to laugh or cry.

We played games inside the cabin to get into a warmer environment.  After the kids played a mummy game where they wrapped themselves up with toilet paper in a race, and won candy bars in the left-right game, they went downstairs to watch a movie while the adults and older kids played games.  The, “what-if” game, a game where people ask “what if” questions and other people answer them, was particularly fun.

At the family reunion.

Visiting the Andersons

Katie, Landon, and Amanda were on a pioneer re-enactment handcart trek with their stake young men/young women group while my family was at the family reunion.  We all got to the Anderson house about the same time.  I was really glad they were willing to get together, even though I know they were all exhausted from their trek and Mike was sick.  Mike made his delicious meatballs and rice.

After dinner we were able to help Katie take inventory of the tents that her group had used on the pioneer trek.  I went back into the house after getting my kids to bed and we had a good time laughing, talking, and playing Frisbee in the house.

Aunt Darlene stopped by the Anderson house to drop off some clothes she picked up for Natalyn from a garage sale.  We talked about David rubbing his hair off because he loves the feel of hair between his fingers.  She suggested that she had a piece of wool that was soft and felt like hair.  We stopped by her home after church on Sunday and picked it up.  I’m so grateful, too.  David calls it his beaver and carries it around with him everywhere and sleeps with it.  He doesn’t rub his hair as long as he has his, “beaver” near.  I hope his hair starts to grow back!

Katie's yard looked like a camp ground after the trek.

Mom and Dad

We were able to buzz down to see my mom and dad in Salt Lake for dinner.  Wow, it was good to see them.  They made a great meal, and we played some games, and went for a walk.  Mostly we just talked.   Time just seemed to go by too quickly before we had to leave.

We like to listen to tapes while we drive.  Natalyn especially loves to listen to the songs.  One of our favorite tapes is about people and families.  The best song of all is, “I’m a V.I.P. in my family (very important person).  Natalyn was very happy asking if we could please listen to I’m a P.I.G. in my family.  She couldn’t stop laughing, along with the rest of us, when she realized what she had spelled.  We often sing the chorus as, a very important piggy, now.

Home at the Lake

For the next several months our home is in one of the most gorgeous spots on earth! As the snow melts off the ridge and higher up the mountain even the mosquitoes are becoming manageable.  We see the fish jumping, and have tried our hand at catching them, but we have proven to be unsuccessful thus far.  We still have fun trying! One of these mornings I’m going to get up early and go by myself to catch breakfast.

Natalyn is Daddy’s girl as she helps him go on rounds almost every day.  She rides along in the company truck as he collects garbage, recycling, cleans bathrooms, and collects fees.  Her favorite part is helping to spot recyclable litter.  In exchange for helping around the campground, the kids get to split all of the funds earned from recycling here.  So far they’re on their way to earning quite a bit of cash this summer.  They’re also making money spotting deer.  For every deer they spot in or near the road before mom and dad, they earn a dollar.  At the rate the boys are trading teeth, the tooth-fairy will be out of business as well.  I say trading teeth, because it has been uncanny how either Tyrell or Dallin will lose a tooth on the same day that Jacob will grow a new one.

We got a ground carpet for the tent which helps keep the dirt down a lot!  Jacob loves the new floor as he crawls around the big space. 

We have more firewood than we’ve ever owned before due to the forest service clearing out dangerous trees.  We’re making good use of it with campfires in the evening.

The lake is just perfect for swimming and the weather has been perfect for it also.  Even David can go far out in the water before it reaches his waist.  The kids take turns between playing on the body board we got in San Diego last winter, and floating the little wooden boats that Grandpa Gordon made with them last summer.

Dan has started playing softball with members of the branch.  We hope the turnout is strong so it doesn’t fizzle out.

I’m looking forward to start hiking with the ladies on Tuesdays.  This Tuesday the kids have dentist appointments, but after that I’m setting the day aside for some rejuvenation time for myself. 

Looking out from our Lake camp site.