NW Vacation: Day 3

A more mellow day...

Of course the kids had some pool time right after breakfast. Then we toured around town, drove up to Chelan Butte and had a picnic lunch.


We went to a fish hatchery...and learned how they raise different kinds of fish to stock the lake. Do you know how they put the fish into the lake? I didn't know. They drop them into the lake from airplanes.

Just...down....and...in--plop. Yes, Lake Chelan is a big lake and very deep--the third deepest in the States. So, I guess they have to spread them throughout the lake quickly. I just had no idea they'd drop them out of planes!

Statistics ahead...

DEEPEST LAKES IN THE U.S.A.
Crater Lake Oregon, 1,943 ft (592 m)
Lake Tahoe California & Nevada, 1,685 ft (514 m)
Lake Chelan Washington, 1,419 ft (433 m)
Lake Superior, 1,333 ft (406 m)

In the last year and a half, we've seen three of the deepest lakes in the States--Lake Tahoe, Lake Chelan, and Lake Superior. The kids probably won't swim in Lake Chelan since Grandpa has a pool, but they did swim in cold Lake Superior last summer and Lake Tahoe last spring (when it was 48 degrees).

After we returned home in the middle of the afternoon, the kids took a nap. Jimmer was down for the count. He never got up for Mass, dinner...or for the rest of the evening.

He missed a great dinner of REALLY good ribs. They were the best ribs we've ever tasted--in a restaurant OR at home. (I tried to document how to make them, so stay tuned for it one day on my recipe site.)

NW Vacation: Day 2

Apparently, the kids didn’t think they had enough time in the pool when we first arrived at my dad’s in Chelan, so they first jumped in the pool around 8:30 AM and didn’t get out (besides for a snack and lunch) until 4:30 PM. They put in a full day!

Things got a bit interesting for a while when Mary Kate discovered a bat hanging inside the just-opened sun umbrella. She was so excited to watch this bat. I hesitantly took a couple of pictures. The bat ended up flying all around the back yard and ran right into Mary Kate, who exclaimed, "Cool!" as the rest of us shreaked, "Ewwww!" (I actually captured the collision on video.) It didn't want to leave and ended up in another closed umbrella...where it latered came out and finally flew away. Turns out that not many people like to get close to bats!

When Uncle Chris arrived with his dog Libby, it just got the kids all riled up even more. They threw a ball to her in the pool for hours…until THEY got tired of it!


Kathleen even jumped with Libby.
Then Kathleen spotted Grandpa’s golf cart in one of the garages and quietly asked me if you need a driver’s license to drive a golf cart. I told Dad, and he ended up giving them rides and letting them drive. Well, he got through only three of the kids…when…something...happened. He was gone with Jimmer for quite a bit longer than with Kathleen and Mary Kate.

Well, about 10 minutes after I took this picture with Jimmer and my dad—ready to go on their ride—they rolled the golf cart. Yep, Jimmer was driving on the golf course trail--and from what my dad said was doing a fine job—but one of the wheels went off the trail at just the wrong time (at a turn and a hill) and whooooooa, rolled over in slow motion.

Here’s an “after picture” which may not look very bad unless you look. The whole steel side support is complete broken, the double windshield was shattered, the whole sun shade in pushed down and back, and seat is broken.
Jimmer had a few minor and very superficial scrapes, my dad’s shoulder is a little sore, and it was a bit scary for both of them. After we finished thanking our lucky stars that neither of them was hurt, we considered it another crazy adventure.

Here’s Jimmer’s accident report: “Some golfers saw us and came over to help. The cart was smoking a little bit and was leaking gas, and it wouldn’t start at first. The men were talking to me and asking me questions like, ‘What’s your name?’ Then they gave me some ice to put on my arm where the cart landed on me.”

Our crazy little boy is also quite sensitive and was both a little shocked by the incident and horrified knowing that he ruined Grandpa’s golf cart. After all, Grandpa lives on Bogey Boulevard! Jimmer was pretty quiet for the rest of the day. Not a day he'll soon forget...especially having three siblings who will always remind him about it!

So, that was our first full day on our vacation. And I’d say it was FULL!

NW Vacation: Day 1

We left at the crack of dawn and flew away…

Our kids felt so big as they handled their own gear—each has a rolling duffle bag and a back pack. Jimmer even wanted to do more than his fair share by taking my bag as well as his. Such chivalry!We arrived in Spokane and drove a few more hours in our rental van to our first destination, Chelan. Chelan is a growing resort town across the Cascade Mountains from Seattle--about midway between Seattle and Spokane. Since I forgot my dad’s careful directions to get to his house (and since I somehow forgot to pack the map we put in a very *special* place so we’d remember to pack it), we followed the Google directions from Joe’s Blackberry. Google must not have known that we were driving a minivan (as oppposed to a 4 x 4) and sent us on this road in the middle of two crops.
The road “pavement” consisted of about 6 inches of soft dust. We were very lucky to not get stuck. Just when we were laughing about this road (which is referred to on our new *real* map as an “unimproved foot path”), we saw this coming at us...on our single-lane "roadway".SQUEEZE!

The “road” eventually turned into rocks, deep grooves and a bunch of switchbacks. It spit us out somewhere closer to our destination…where we still made pretty good time getting to Chelan! Here's our view! Lots of apple orchards here as you can see by the neat lines of greenery (if you click on it for a closer look).

Once we arrived, the kids jumped in the pool and were not heard from for a long time.Our adventure begins!

This is what our bedroom looked like yesterday afternoon

Any guesses what's going on here?


Sadly, this is only about half of what was really scattered throughout the entire room!

No, we're not moving!

Another milestone!

Come quickly, Tooth Fairy!

Tonight, as I was trying to tidy up downstairs, the kids were upstairs getting ready for bed. It seemed a bit noisy to me as they were "brushing their teeth" so I called up to see if they were finished. A couple of minutes later, Jimmer came down stairs a little upset. Somehow, his loose tooth was made much looser by his sister's foot. (I'm still not sure how, exactly, it happened.) Anyway, the tooth was just dangling in his mouth. So, I just reached in and plucked it out.
After his sisters wrote a cute note with statistics of the event to the Tooth Fairy, they zipped it up in a baggie and walked with him upstairs to put it under his pillow. Jimmer is going to bed in anticipation of a visitor coming to give HIM a golden Sacajawea ($1 coin)!

A happy yet sad moment for me as our youngest has reached yet another milestone.

Right now, I can hear him asking Kathleen and Mikey about the tooth fairy.

Jimmer: "Does she just walk into your room and turn invisible?"

(I couldn't hear the response.)

Jimmer: "She probably has to wait around somewhere in our house until I go to sleep."

Mikey: "I guess so."

Kathleen: "Maybe she's tiny. As small as a speck of sand. Because she's so small she needs help carrying the golden Sacajawea, so she has to bring in a small crane. Wouldn't that be cool?"

Jimmer: "If she's small like a bug, I hope she doesn't get stuck between the windows like that one fly."

Kathleen: "Let's put it under your pillow."

Jimmer: "I want to put it under my bed. I hope I wake up to see her!"

Come quickly, Tooth Fairy! We need to get up at 4:00 AM and leave really early in the morning!

Rainbow Connections

After I took a picture of my chin the other night, I was going to write a quick post about the "rainbow connections" I've experienced recently.

The "connections" started early Friday. The kids and I were messing around in the living room when I lunged down to grab Jimmer...and he sprang up to meet me. The "connection" happened with his head and my chin! I thought, "Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark!" Jimmer came out with a little spot on his forehead. My chin swelled...but no mark.

Later that evening, we experienced our 2nd "rainbow connection" at our godson's baptism. He is named Javan, the name of one of Noah's (as in the Ark) grandsons. You know the rainbow connection there--the symbol of God's promise to Noah!
Saturday when I woke up and went outside to play with the kids, our neighbor looked at me and said something like, "Hey, what happened to your chin?" A nice "colorful" part of my rainbow connection with Jimmer had appeared--a bruise (and still a lump). The bruise is darker than it appears in this picture, it wraps around under my chin (rainbow shape?) where there's another dark bruise, and is yellow and bluish. Nice, right?!
THEN last evening after we had a few little neighbor girls over to paint their nails on our front porch--outside so as to avoid any indoor spills, I experienced our latest rainbow connection. This "connection" had to do with nail polish and our carpeting. As it turns out (and we're naming no names here, besides to clarify that it was done by one of my daughters...and we have only one girly daughter who likes nail polish), the spill just so happened to be made in the form of a...you got it, a rainbow.(This photo shows at least a 4 ft. span of our carpeting...just as you enter the main area of our home after coming through the foyer.)

My daughter *thought* that all the caps were on tight and came running in the house with all the bottles to put away. Did I say running? I meant she was running and apparently swinging her arms from what the shape of the spill looks like.

The white shorts she was wearing were also covered with the stuff...as were both walls of the doorway she was walking through! See her white shorts? They're now white and pink! (Anyone know how to get this stain out? I've tried nail polish remover and it still looks like this!)

My rainbow connections...

How divine!

Didn't you know we were expecting..?

...to be Godparents?

We were honored last night at our new Godson's baptism.

This beautiful baby boy's parents are founders of a multi-faceted Catholic marriage ministry, The Alexander House, and will be hosting an upcoming EWTN series, Marriage Works in Christ: Broken & Blessed, expected to air in the spring. (Greg is 6' 7" so he makes us all look shorter!)

We had a fabulous time extending the celebration afterwards at a friend's home.

Since a diving board at a pool is a rarity these days, the kids made the most of it last night!
Again, the kids didn't get out of the pool until they were beyond shriveled!

Our lovely and generous hostess is on the left.