August 2007 archive
Moulton Falls
Moulton Falls is another park along the Lewis River here in Clark County, WA. We explored it on Saturday. The weather was cooler and we were almost the only ones there:
Just up the road from Lucia Falls is Moulton Falls. ... See my Tabblo>
You are allowed to swim here, if you dare. There are some really deep pools and the water is cold and clear. There were two scuba divers training there, and some crazy kids came and jumped in too. We dipped our feet in and that was enough. We walked up and over the bridge and along the trail on the other side of the river for a ways. Mostly we climbed on the rocks and looked at the deep pools and rapids. It was a relaxing Saturday.
Posted by Bryan on August 20, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
Life with boys
We bought new furniture that came in some great huge boxes. A big box is every child’s dream toy. Our boys were thrilled and so yesterday they got to start “designing” their “spy houses.” A door, a window, the essential peek hole so they can spy on each other… all in all, they were occupied almost all day with their boxes. It was great and helped us be free to unpack vacation stuff and rest up a bit since we have all been feeling yucky with what turns out to be strep throat for Bryan and the rest of us will visit the good doctor tomorrow to figure out what is ailing us too. (We all have different symptoms, but each is very grumpy because of whatever it is!)
Today the boxes entertained the boys yet once again while Bryan stayed home with them from church to keep the germs quarantined. I am going to paint you a picture now to describe one of the events from the morning. Isaac came in and told Bryan that they were now pretending that the boxes were pools, but that they were keeping their clothes on. A short while later, Bryan glimpses a naked Micah streaking across the backyard through the window. Bryan’s question of where Micah’s clothes were proceeded his actual appearance and by the time he got outside to find the culprit he could see the little guy disappearing into his box to put his clothes back on! I guess our three year old really gets into his creative play!
Ily got new shelves from Costco. Once they were set up in the office, the boys got some new cardboard boxes to play with. ... See my Tabblo>
Posted by ily on August 12, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
Wright Cabin Trip
Well, it turns out we didn’t as many pictures as I had thought, but I’ve uploaded them and you can see what we did take up at the Wright Family Cabin:
We spent four days at the Wright family cabin in the Blue Mountains of Oregon. The trail in is incredibly, um, rustic, and crosses the Walla Walla river about 7 times. We rode in the back of the Wrights’ red 4×4 truck.
... See my Tabblo>
It was a great trip. Very relaxing and fun. We drove to Milton Freewater, Oregon on Monday morning, and then out to “the end of the road” where Richard and Nolan were waiting in with the red Dodge 4×4 truck. We loaded everything in and rode with Nolan, Steff, Lexa, and our family in the back. The dirt trail disappeared into the Walla Walla river about 7 times on the way to the cabin, and luckily it reappeared on the other side every time. During one of the river crossings we saw a black bear cub playing on the side of the river, but we weren’t fast enough with the camera.
Once up at the cabin we played ping-pong and pool upstairs, ate good cabin food, waded in the river, went fishing, played horse shoes, shot BB guns, played games, and just had a nice relaxing time with everyone. The boys also played on the swingset and see-saws with Lexa and got nice and dirty. It was a blast.
Nolan and Richard taught Ily and I how to fly fish, and I have to tell you, standing in the middle of the river and watching the fish jump at your lure is awesome. It’s a lot more work than the fishing I’m used to, but it’s a lot of fun too. Just being out on a little river with nobody around, exploring for good holes, and being with nature is so amazing. I could get used to that. Now, getting tangled in trees and having a sore arm from waving the pole around so much, that’s a different story. I forgot all of that once I caught my 8-inch rainbow trout though (8 was the minimum keeper size). Very fun.
Tuesday morning Nolan’s sisters and brother’s-in-law went on a hike and took Isaac with them. They were impressed that Isaac stayed right up with them and was able to talk the whole time. I guess they were breathing hard during parts of it, but he had no problems keeping right on with the conversation. On their way back they saw a bear in the river, much closer to the cabin. That made us a little vervous, but Nolan and Steff have watched a lot of “Man versus Wild” and told us all to make lots of noise and we’d be OK. Later that day and later in the week people saw some huge salmon in the river, and on Nolan’s last day they saw a salmon with a bite taken out of it laying on the bank of the river. I think the bears were doing better fishing than we were. Fortunately that’s all we saw of them.
Isaac caught a fish too. We let him fish from the bank with a regular spinning rod. He had a little spinner on that he was just dangling in the water as he moved the tip of the rod back and forth to make it spin and flash. It didn’t take long for him to pull up a little 3-incher. Right after that he walked back to the trail and got stung by a wasp, on his ear and his neck. I didn’t see it and at first I couldn’t see anything on his skin. I thought maybe he just bumped into it and got scared, but then his ear started to puff up huge and get angry red. We hurried up to the cabin and Ily put some baking soda and water on it. We gave him some benedryl too and by morning he looked OK again. He was shocked a bug could be so mean, but he toughed it out.
By Thursday Reece and Micah were done. They were very tired kiddos and were making Ily and I very tired parents. We rode the big red truck out to the “the end of the road” again with a couple others that were leaving that day too. We drove to Pendleton from Milton Freewater and had pizza for lunch there. Then Ily drove the whole way home from there without stopping. The kids had fallen asleep and we didn’t want anything to wake them up.
Sadly, that evening Reece threw up twice. He cried and cried and we could tell his stomach was upset. It seemed like gas, but when he hurled we realized it was worse. He hasn’t thrown up since, though, but he’s had a couple fits of crying like he did Thursday. Isaac has also had an upset stomach and a fever. I’ve come down with a nasty cold and got grumpy with everyone today. I guess that’s what we get for having so much fun at both the wedding and the cabin. Ily must feel good though, because she’s plowing ahead with getting the office back together. It’s looking really good and we should be able to find stuff in there again soon.
Posted by Bryan on August 11, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
We're Home
Just a quick note to let everybody know that we are home! After Julie’s wedding we headed up to the Wright family cabin. Nolan planned this trip with us a long time ago and we were excited to spend some time up in the mountains. All together we were away from home for 8 nights, which is the longest Micah and Reece have stayed away ever, I think. Every day at the cabin Micah asked if we were going to go home to sleep. Today we could finally answer yes.
Once we get all unpacked and organized I’ll put some pictures online and give the whole adventure a proper write-up. Don’t hold your breath or anything until we do that though. Reece has thrown up twice since we got home and it may take some time to get settled into things again. Right now we are just glad he waited until we were out of the car.
Posted by Bryan on August 9, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
Julie's Wedding
We have had a great time here in Kennewick for Julie’s wedding. It was wonderful and we are very happy for them. I think I’ll let Ily write up her more detailed and romantic version of things when she gets a chance. I mainly wanted to point out that the pictures that we took have all been uploaded to tabblo. I’ve made two tabblos out of the pictures. One is just a quick throw all 123 pictures onto one tabblo. They aren’t really in a good order, but you can see them all and view the slideshow and stuff. Check it out:
And here is one that I spent a little more time on, getting the pictures in roughly chronological order. These are all the ones we took at the temple while waiting for them to come out, when they came out, and then some after they came out while the portraits were all being taken.
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at the Columbia River Temple. ... See my Tabblo>
Posted by Bryan on August 5, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
