What I Did For Spring Break

I used to hate when my teacher gave us that writing assignment.  My mind would go blank and I wouldn't know where to start.  Besides, I never did anything exciting over Spring Break or Summer Vacation.  I ended up making a sort of list:  I climbed trees, did chores, pulled weeds, helped with the canning and freezing of produce, read books (I could actually put that in several times since that was the activity of choice from about second grade on) and played games with one or another or multiples of my siblings.

My objection to the writing assignment wasn't because I had nothing to write about but because it sounded boring next to my classmates going to Lake Tahoe or Disneyland or Hawaii or Mexico.  I also had no idea where to start or what to include.  It helped a little when the teacher told us to write about our most exciting adventure.

My most exciting adventure for Spring Break 2010 took up nearly the entire week.  Four adults and I took 14 Girl Scouts aged 11 - 14 to Disneyland for three days.   There were two younger sibling tag-alongs but they stayed glued to their parent's side and I wasn't responsible for them in any way.

The story opens at 3 am Monday morning in the local library parking lot where we met for the drive down.  Most of the girls had stayed up all night with the encouragement of their parents in the hopes that they'd spend a good deal of the drive sleeping.  Richelle had never had me order her to stay up so that was quite a novel experience for her.  One of the girls spent the night with us so they could help each other stay awake.  They managed it but when I got up at 1:50am, Richelle greeted me with, "I'm tired and want to go to sleep!"

I had three girls with me in our truck and do you think they dropped off to sleep in an hour or so?  Hollow laugh.  Those gluttons stayed awake until just south of Redding - about five hours down the road.  Absolute excitement kept them awake and silly.

Sixteen hours after leaving the parking lot, we arrived at the motel.  We can probably skip the part where we had to get off the freeway for a pit stop just as we came into Los Angeles...and promptly got separated from our lead car.  Nothing deliberate, just traffic.  We can also gloss over my merge into a city street while trying to get back on the freeway.  And the sheer terror of finally merging onto the freeway and having a two-trailered belly-dump semi six inches from my mirror.  He had his lane and I had mine but I thought mine was going to end and I didn't see anything but semi to my left.  I'd swear they make the lanes on the freeways down there the width of a semi plus six inches.  It was enough to make a person's hair stand on end and get an otherwise dedicated atheist to fervently pray.  I had one of our SUVs seemingly attached to my bumper with an invisible bungee cord and played tag with the other for about ten miles before we got re-connected.  I love cell phones and people on the same provider as I am.  We met up with the lead car....at the motel.  They had the group checked in so all we had to do was unload and park.

We had ordered "Class B" shirts (informal uniforms) in time for this trip.  At one of the pre-event meetings, we asked the girls what rules they'd like to set down.  The first suggestion was "no drama" and was quickly seconded so we had "No Drama" printed on the left sleeve of the Class B.  Any time any of the girls started getting dramatic, someone would point to the sleeve or say, "No drama!"  It usually worked.

more later.....(the Lovely Daughter is doing this for the Dearest Mother. hee hee. and i will add that the girl that thought of the "no drama" was the most dramatic girl.)

Family Additions

Both of our sons are engaged to be married.  Cameron and Serena announced their engagement last summer; Nick and Jenn shared their news at Christmastime.

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Cameron and Serena are planning a wedding for June 26th. Not the best picture in the world but what I have on hand.

Nick and Jenn plan to be married early summer 2011.

They are both wonderful young ladies, very good for the boys, and we enjoy them very much.  They take the teasing that Mike is so well-known for dishing out and even toss it back now and then.  

It's lovely to see two young couples so happy with each other and Richelle is thrilled to have two new sisters.

A House Full

Cameron and Serena were here one afternoon last week when Nick and Jenn unexpectedly showed up to return some stuff they'd borrowed.  Afternoon turned into evening as we whiled away the hours as families do.

It warmed my heart to have the house full again, bumping into people, extra chairs at the table, doors and windows open because of the extra heat from additional bodies, listening to the five kids forging ties to make a new, larger, family......

End Of The Year Fun

Mike wanted to take the whole family went up into the mountains to play in the snow this winter. It's been seven or eight years since we've done that. He had the last two weeks of the year off so the boys put their heads and work schedules together and we went up on 30 December. There had been a good snowfall the evening and night before so the snow was fresh, dry, untraveled, and about eighteen inches deep. We stopped at about 3400ft elevation at, literally, a wide spot in the road where it forked. We had come to a stop trying to read the snow-dusted sign and couldn't get going again without putting the chains on.

Well, we did go, just not the direction we wanted. Every time Mike gave it a little gas, we slid sideways a little closer to the edge of the road. Cameron was on that side of the pickup and kept saying, "Dad, should we put the chains on?" with a little more agitation each time as he saw the edge coming closer and closer. Mike is very competent driving in the snow and knew exactly what he was doing but I think he was trying to get a bit of a rise out of us, too.

He put the chains on, got himself out of the hole and decided this was as good a place as any to stop. Out came the snowshoes, skis, sleds, snowboard, table, chairs, pop-up shade, propane stove, lunch, and drinks. Mike drove up and down a good stretch of road to make a decent ski/sled run.

Richelle crouched behind Nick's truck, putting on the snowshoes the boys made when they were in Boy Scouts.

Modeling the snowshoes. I didn't get a picture of her hurrying to catch up with Nick and doing a face-plant.

Serena, Cameron, Jenn, and Richelle molding the first two layers of the snow-....um....something.

Mike getting involved in shaping the head. Nick is on the right.

The final product. I think they decided it was a dinosaur of some sort. Later, they added sticks for arms and short pieces of cedar branches for antlers. The decorations are broccoli and carrots from lunch.

Mike took a few turns on the sled and even went one more time so I could get a picture of him. Here, he's waiting for Richelle and Cameron to finish their run.

The "wide spot" in the road. The main road comes up from the left, I'm standing on the road to Hemlock Lake, and the road over the ridge to Highway 138 is to the right.

Cameron and Serena. For some unknown reason, I didn't get one of Nick and Jenn.

Short, steep, and oh! so scary. Richelle screamed every time she slid down. As everyone knows, the more you slide on a spot the faster it gets. By the time we left, Richelle was flying down the cut bank and the dip from the snow-filled ditch launched her into the middle of the road.

This is what a Pacific Northwest logging road looks like in winter at 4,000 ft elevation. This really is a road! The snow was about two and a half feet deep with spots where it was maybe three feet deep. (I just asked Mike and that's what he told me.) Deep enough that we were plowing it with our bumper and grill and throwing snow up over the hood, windshield, and pick-up. Jenn said they watched it blow over the entire truck.

Richelle and I got back last night from my niece and her family's home. Those kids are vastly entertaining!

I read in "Bells on Their Toes" (sequel to "Cheaper by the Dozen") how a person cannot stay with a large family for very long without having something snap unless they themselves are from a large family or they have grown with one. I wouldn't say that five children is a large family, really, but I can see the truth in that statement.

I'm glad I have eleven siblings and four children. If I hadn't, the several conversations at mealtimes (each usually conducted at a higher decibel level than the conversation next-door, so to speak) might have gotten to me. Or dealing with one child crying because he thumped his head following older brother under the bed when another child suddenly becomes lost and frightened under the same bed - having followed older brother...

It was an enjoyable time. Precious snapshots:

~ The three-year-old emphatically declaring she "didn't like spinach!"
"You don't?" her father asked mildly.
"No. I don't like spinach."
"How about trying just a little?" her dad suggested, "Okay?"
"Okay." she agreed happily.
She asked for seconds, then thirds, and became heartbroken when her mom took the last of it.

~ I didn't know it at the time, but the seven-year-old son has some trouble reading. He read the word 'Luke' as 'luck' and I gave a quick lesson on how the 'e' can reach over one letter and thump the vowel on the head to make it say its long name but it can't reach over two letters. A couple of days later, he thanked me for the lesson, saying it helped his reading a lot.

~ The nine-year-old rolling her eyes when I tried to sweet-talk her into setting the table early by calling her "my favorite oldest niece there". She set the table with a smile - seeing through my ploy.

~ The 22-month-old flomping himself to the floor from ill-use and mis-treatment because I dared to offer him a piece of my (large) cookie instead giving him one of his own....but chirking right up when offered half a cookie from the bag.

~ The newborn being her sweet and adorable baby girl self.

Ahh...memories.

Children Are Adorable

I have the privilege this week of spending a few days at the home of my niece and her family to help out after the birth of their fifth child. It's been ten years since I had a toddler and I'd forgotten how entertaining they are.

This morning, the almost-two-year-old toddled over to where I was standing and took my hand in his. As I looked down to see what he wanted, he circled around until he had his mouth against my palm. Then he coughed. After which he nonchalantly walked away.

Later this afternoon, I was playing a 22-month-old version of "pillow fight" with him; he'd bring me the soft couch pillow and back away about six feet, I'd toss the pillow into his tummy, he'd pick it up, and it'd start all over. Well, I got distracted once and caught him off-balance, knocking him over and sending his head against the wall with a solid "thud". I leaped off the couch with comfort in mind but when I picked him up...he giggled.

Another time, the three-and-a-half-year-old came running to her mom in tears and highly indignant because her seven-year-old brother had pushed her. My niece asked several reasons why he might have pushed her but all were hotly denied. She finally asked, "Why would he do that?"
"Because I shut the door on his head," was the honest answer.

This same inquisitive girl "helped" me make supper.
"You are making supper today?" she asked.
"Yep," I answered.
"Why are you making supper?"
"Because your mom and dad are busy."
Her head jerked up, eyes wide, "They are?"

New Refrigerator

One thing led to another and the result is that we have a brand-new side-by-side refrigerator. This is the second new fridge of our marriage, the previous one having been purchased in early 1984. It was rated pretty high on the efficiency scale but with the passing of twenty-five years, that efficiency dropped from "wonderful" to "mediocre" all the way down to "deplorable".

Mike, bless his sweet heart, plumbed it for the water dispenser and ice-maker features even though he hates plumbing. I've learned to remove the children from the room so their hearing isn't damaged from the muttering that rumbles from him while he's working. It took four bath towels, two hand towels and a washcloth, but he successfully plumbed the fridge. He's now like a child on Christmas morning in regards to the ice dispenser.

It was plumbed and in place and we were adjusting the shelves when we hit a snag. The factory puts in little clips to keep the shelves from coming loose during shipping and I couldn't figure out how to remove them. Mike asked to give it a try so I moved out of the way. He fiddled with them for a minute, mentioned that he needed a pair of pliers, and stepped out to get them. As he stepped out, Richelle stepped in. She's accustomed to me asking for her little fingers or skinny arms to reach something or wiggle something loose.

"Richelle," Mike said irritably, reaching for the pliers, "if I can't get it," turning back to the fridge, "You can't get it!"

Pause

"How did you get it?"