Cousin Bonding

These two cousins were born a month apart, but now live thousands of miles away.  We have been fortunate to get together on a relatively frequent basis.  For a while now, Christian had been hoping that Stefan could come and hang out in the summer, aside from our family gathering time.  Last week, Stefan made the long flight form the SE corner of the country to the NW corner. 

Welcome Stefan!

Christian now has the opportunity to take and show his cousin some of his favorites places and activities.  And lots of time to bond!

Sailing on Lake Whatcom

Eating fresh Dungeness crab caught the day before by our neighbors in local waters.

 

Camping at Fort Ebey State Park

An animated and spirited game of fresbee

Treasure hunting on the beach

"Stick Fight" with drift wood

Breaking the rules; I'm discovering that there is a rebellious side to my nephew

Getting his feet wet in the Pacific Ocean

Arm wrestling is a must, gotta establish the pecking order

We are so glad to have you, looking forward to many more days of bonding and adventures! 

In The Shadow of Mt Baker

A couple of years ago, as part of his English class assignment, Nolan wrote down a few goals he had.  One was to climb Mt St Helens at age 11 and the other was to climb Mt Baker at age 12. 

Earlier this year, as I was filing some of his work, I came across that paper.  Realizing that his first goal had been accomplished, I wonder if we could help him achieve the next.  Christian had also caught the Baker bug last year when a group of his friends had began planning a climb that never came to fruition.  The will and determination was there, but they would need a support team to help them with the logistics, skills and safety issues involved.

We contacted a friend for advice, since he had summited Baker more than a dozen times and has a wealth of knowledge and experience.  He not only was willing to share his knowledge, but invited us to join a group he was leading up the mountain in the coming summer.

And so, our adventure began.

It took a lot of training, planning, and three trip cancellations due to the weather, but we were finally on our way.

After hiking through the woods for a few hours, we arrived at snow level, an area known as Hogsback.

After taking a break for lunch, we practiced our self arrest skills and crevasse rescue, which is like insurance, something you hope you'll never have to use.

Off to set up our base camp at the Black Buttes.

Aren't they amazing?
Everybody pitched in to get the tents up and to melt enough snow for cooking dinner and replenish our water supply for the next day.

We had this amazing window of clear sky around us, with the clouds only closing in behind and below us.

Time to try to catch a few hours of sleep.  Those who didn't mind the relentless wind beating down on their tent might have been able to rest. 

At 1am our fearless and energetic leader made sure everybody was awake and getting ready for our final climb. Can you see the trail of headlights in the darkness as we started our ascent? What the camera did not capture was the amazing star filled sky and the city lights down bellow by the Frasier Valley. It was absolutely magical. It didn't take long and the sky started to get lighter with a hue of redness in the distance.

It was all uphill, nothing you could do to change that.

Here we are @ 9700 feet, with very strong wind gusts and cold temperatures, needing to make some tough & quick decisions.

One of the members of our rope team was suffering from some pretty severe altitude sickness and needed to go down. I was spent and didn't mind turning back, but Christian was going strong and was so close to the summit! I did not want to see him have to turn back.

Quickly and swiftly, ropes were re configured, which allowed Christian to continue on the last trek. Three of us turned back, so close, but yet so far! It wasn't an easy choice to make, but it was the right one.

SUMMIT!

They made it!

Not much time was spent up there.  The winds were so strong, up to 60 mph wind gusts, Nolan just had to throw himself down and bury his ice axe to stay in place when those gusts hit.  however, not even the unpleasant conditions could keep the smiles from their faces.

Better than the views, adventures and summits, was getting to spend time with this great group of wonderful people.

Now one more obstacle layed ahead of us. The bridge over the creek right at the beginning of the trail was washed out by an avalanche earlier in the year, and now you have to bush whack, go down a ravine and cross a log over rushing waters. It was all fun & games the day before, 5 minutes into our adventure. But now, after two days of having spent every ounce of your energy, it just seemed like another mountain. Not to mention it had started to drizzle making the log quite slippery.

We all made it across, back to our cars and down to Chair 9 to celebrate by ordering "Mt Baker" pizzas.

This was truly an amazing experience!  So glad I was able to share it with two of our boys.

Summer Camping

You know summer is in full swing when it's time to travel over the mountains

to go camping in eastern WA in the company of good friends.

Part of the fun is to enjoy the heat and cool off in the lake.

It took a bit of effort and some good laughs . .

. . .  but I managed to haul myself onto the mat.

Adults weren't the only ones having fun

Christian was not part of the action this year, he was on a mission trip to Hollywood with his youth group.

So long, until next year! 

Summer Tidbits

Summer is at full swing in our household.  The two older boys spent last week at Boy Scout camp. Camp Parsons was founded in 1919, making it the 1st BSA camp west of the Mississippi.

The boys worked, learned and played hard.

Ethan and I made the 3hr drive to camp, down beautiful Hood Canal, to pick C&N up a day early.  I wanted to give Christian one night at home so he could recharge his batteries before heading to Hollywood on a church youth group mission trip.  He is currently at this place.

Berry season is ripe and I got strawberries and raspberries in our bellies, in the freezer and cooked into jam.   Cherries are also abundant, even more delicious than they are beautiful.

In the mean time, Shawn was off on his own adventure, attempting to climb Mt Rainier.  What an exciting opportunity.  I had only one request of him; besides being safe of course; that he would take lots of pictures.  I made sure the battery was charged and handed him the camera, not realizing that the memory card was still in the laptop.  Sigh!! 

To say that the weather can be unpredictable on the mountains is an understatement, here is the forecast for their summit day:

Tonight A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 32. Breezy, with a southeast wind 7 to 12 mph becoming south southwest 20 to 25 mph in the evening.

Monday A chance of rain showers before 11am, then a chance of snow showers. Some thunder is also possible. Snow level 13300 feet. Partly sunny, with a high near 44. North northwest wind 7 to 11 mph becoming south southeast in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

The thunderstorms even crossed the mountains (a very rare event) and woke me up in the middle of the night, which gave me an opportunity to pray again for their safety.  Unknown to me, they had weathered the storm 3 hours before, at their camp at 9500 feet.  It had been an unsettling experience, to say the least.  Unknown to me as well, was that they had summited the day before, Sunday July 8th, and were now on their way down.  I finally got his call around noon the next day when they were safely down at sea level and in cell covered territory again.  How great it was to get that phone call! 

Now, there are no pictures to prove his summit, however, his excitement, exhaustion, amazing stories and blisters are enough proof, and I'm thrilled to have him in our arms again.

Oldest & Only

While his two older brothers were at Boys Scout camp, Ethan got a taste of being the oldest boy of house.  His two young cousins spent an evening with us, and he fulfilled his role very well.

Our excavators and bulldozers were dug out and put back to work.

Although at times he seemed a little lost without his older brothers, it was nice to have an opportunity for some undivided attention.  I did have to share some of his attention with this little helicopter.

He had been saving for a while to get a good & reliable remote control helicopter, having had his share of mediocre ones.   This time, his toy worked well and gave him and his friends many hours of entertainment, for the first day.  The next day, we were back at the mall, taking advantage of the one year warranty, which they honored without questions.  I have a feeling that we will be back there several more times in the coming year.

A Milestone

Celebrating an anniversary . . .

by relaxing seaside

watching time and sails go by

enjoying a nice sunset

with your husband of twenty years on your side.   

Priceless!

We had to postpone our climb once again (3rd time) due to the weather, the forecast predicted thunder and snow for our summit day.  Not a good combination!  So what does one do with the extra time and foul weather?  You get your paint supplies out and tackle some walls that have been begging to get repainted.

It started with two walls, one of them being by the stairs, so I guess it could count as three since it encompasses two levels.  But you know how it goes, since we are on a roll here, might as well do the hall too.  The color and gloss finish had been bugging me since the day we painted it last.  Well, now the color in the bathroom really looks out of place and one of the baseboard needs to be changed (like a year ago). 

Here we are, four days later and I'm still at it.  The paint paraphernalia has now been moved to the downstairs level.  My plan is to be done by tomorrow, just in time when summer is finally forecasted to arrive here in the Pacific Northwest.

Dad and Me

A rite of passage when you turn ten in our family, is to go on a special outing of your choice with dad.  Christian chose to go on an overnight kayak trip, Nolan opted for bacpacking, Ethan stayed true to his passion and chose to go to a ball game.  I love how these choices reflect their diversity and unique passion & gifts they each have.

The Mariners took on the Red Sox and were able to pull off a victory with a point that came near the end.  Perfect ending for a great day with dad.