A Stop in Utah

After our jaunt in Great Basin and a night in Ely, NV we headed on to the great metropolis of Utah County to pick up Ellie. We were going to be in town just shy of 24 hours so there was no way to see everyone and do everything that we hoped. Even still, I was able to spend some time with a good friend (whom I dearly miss!), we did our grocery shopping for the coming week, went to our favorite restaurant for a date (oh, the engagement and wedding memories), and cooked dinner for the Davis family. Of course no visit to Utah is complete without spending time with my cute little almost 92 year-old Grandma.

She's my favorite.

Ever.

For the last couple years she's been living in New Mexico and I haven't seen her very often. Now however she is back in her home and loving it. She had a blast showing Aeryn how to use her organ and they spent a good amount of time pressing all the buttons to see what would happen.

 I'm sure it was more surprising to Aeryn than to Grandma, but she played along anyway.

After visiting at her house for a couple hours I drug her along to the Davis's so that we could feed her. It seems a lot of people worry about whether or not Grandma is eating (because sometimes she just doesn't) so I made sure she had at least one good meal that day. I think she liked it and getting out of the house a little, but I'm sure it was me who enjoyed it the most.

I made the girls stand with Grandma for a picture and Ellie said that she didn't remember my Grandma. They've only really met at our wedding last year so it isn't surprising, but it seems the title "grandma" won out and she decided to be ok with her.

For me this was the highlight of the stop, and picking up Ellie-girl, of course. My grandma has been there for me through some really tough moments, always making me feel unconditionally loved. Everyone needs someone who makes them feel like that. She is pretty much the best.

The First of a Few

Summer is here! Which means that we get our (only) real week off this year. In typical fashion we headed out for our family's brand of adventure. Jim was able to get off work a day earlier than expected so we headed to Utah to pick up Ellie-girl before our adventures really began. On the way we stopped at Great Basin National Park.

I confess, Great Basin was not one of the destinations I was excited for. I'd like to imagine that anyone who has driven I-80 West and seen exits for Great Basin in the middle-of-nowhere Nevada has likely had the same feelings. Surprisingly, it turned out to be pretty neat. We stopped at the visitor's center to stamp our National Parks Passport and find out what we should do with our few available hours. In the parking lot I was more than a little surprised to see this on the car next to us.

Poor bird.

We tried to hike to see the Bristlecone pines but even though it was a fairly short hike (1.5 miles) it didn't go over well with the little one among us. All Aeryn wanted to do was get to Yellowstone to see Grandma, which wasn't going to be for another two days. She held back and waltzed to her own beat up the trail which meant we weren't going to get to the pines in time to make it back for our tour of Lehman Caves. At the last minute we intentionally turned the "wrong" way at a fork in the road so that we could be at a lake in 0.1 miles and make it seem like the little jaunt had an intended ending.

The hike was really quite pretty. Certainly not as green as Oregon (we've been spoiled!) or as spectacular as some of the things yet to come on our journey but nice in it's own way - and especially nice for the middle of Nevada.

The view from the top of the road through the park made the Great Basin look rather impressive.

By far the highlight was touring Lehman Caves. I love caves. They are just fascinating to the Geology nerd in me. Besides, for years the only way I could get Aeryn to hike a trail was to make sure there was a cave at the end because she likes them so much. As is usually the case with caves, pictures look far less spectacular than the actual thing.

It was a great (and surprising) first stop for our week of vacation!

The cake that wasn't

Aeryn has a super-cute friend who has super-fun ideas. On Mother's Day, the girls came up to me and proclaimed that they wanted to make an Angel Food cake for E's mother. It's her favorite treat and like a darling daughter E was determined to do something special for her mom. I didn't have the ingredients on hand and the timing wasn't the best so we endeavored to try it this past week.

It didn't turn out quite as planned. Try as they might they just couldn't keep the egg yolks out of the whites, which spells D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R when egg white-whipping is to occur. They were so very focused though, and were both really quite excited to be trying. They would switch off every egg or two, doing really well until once or twice the yolk would break in the separator or would fall into the measuring cup intact. They tried to dig out all the yolks creating a sort of swirly, eggy mess.

{Forgive the blur. Uncontrollable laughing of the subjects will do that to a photo.}

We decided to see if it would turn out and added the rest of the ingredients just in case it would be ok. It wasn't.

As I watched it all unfold all I could think of was Junior High School, when Mara and I loved to bake and would often dream up some treat or another. One afternoon after riding my bike to her house I was especially proud of my newly developed skill of cracking an egg into a bowl one-handed. Eager to show Mara but still wound up from riding up the insane hill to her house, I smashed the egg down on the bowl a little way too hard. It dripped half into the bowl, half onto the table, and started dripping through the table seam for the leaf onto the floor below. It was at that point her mother said "I can't watch this." and left us to our own devices. We baked a lot. We made messes a lot. We always cleaned up after ourselves so that we'd still be allowed to bake again.

In the end, I think it's part of what makes me like to bake to this day.

I guess what I get out of this is that a failed Angel Food cake is a small price to pay for kids having fun in the kitchen.

Another one bites the dust

Guess who's a 4th grader now??!!?

Yep. You guessed it.

This year has been incredible. Aeryn looks so much bigger to me than she did in the fall. She's learned multiplication tables, improved her reading, and made a ton of friends. She was able to do some fantastic art projects this year and really loves when we go somewhere and she recognizes one of Monet's paintings. She had the best teacher (Mrs. Mary) and actually told me she didn't want to go to 4th grade next year, but stay in 3rd. The year has been that awesome.

This year I chose to keep her out of speech therapy.  It was a nerve wracking decision because I wasn't sure she was ready to move on, but she is so social that I wanted to see if she would progress more quickly learning from her peers. Also, I didn't want her to be pulled out of class time and miss something else (like math) in the process. It seems to have been an OK decision. At the beginning of 2nd grade she was in the 3rd percentile (you read that right) for expressive language. She and her 2nd grade teacher did not fit each other well and she made little progress that entire year. Now, she's just barely behind her peers. It's such a huge improvement and I'm so grateful for it. Despite our efforts at home, there is something to be said for good teachers who really care about your kids! They make all the difference in the world.

Her class did the neatest end of year project. Each student read a different Magic Tree House book and then built a tree house that represented their story. Aeryn read "Mummies in the Morning."

She struggled a little with words like "sarcophagus" but read the whole book with minimal assistance. Her tree house was a blast to put together and took great self-control on my part to not make the whole thing for her. We had so much fun gathering sticks and building the tree house out of popsicle sticks. I was relegated to the role of hot-glue administrator.

She drew Jack and Annie, the Hieroglyphics from the Pyramid, cut out dozens of construction paper oak leaves, made a colorful rope ladder, and a popsicle stick mummy. When she came home from school today she'd forgotten to bring the project. We headed straight back to the school to get it because I love it so much I wasn't ready to part with it.

The year has not always been easy, but I'd say it's been well worth it. She is growing up before my very eyes and if I let myself admit it, I really do love it.

These are the days...

...that just seem absolutely perfect. Do you ever have one of those?

Oregon is bright, warm, and green right now which just begs for people to get outside and enjoy it. When Jim realized that there was a UO baseball game today we decided to make it a family affair and bike over. Did I tell you he gave me a bike for my birthday? No? Well, he's pretty much the most awesome ever and surprised me with a lovely purple cruiser complete with a basket and bell. Part of me feels like I'm 7 again when I ride it, and all of me is completely ecstatic.

Aeryn and I headed from our lovely little apartment over to the lab to meet Jim as he was leaving and we headed over to the stadium. I was so enamored with the perfection of the moment that I simply HAD to try and capture it with my phone.

I love that basket (and the cute family riding with me).

We had the most quintessentially Norman-Rockwellish ride over and then found that there were so many students taking a break from finals that the bleachers were standing room only. Squirt was not going to survive standing up for the game so we hopped back on our bikes and rode home leaving Jim behind to stand it out (and go back to work. Boo.). As we rode through a small puddle she squealed with delight thinking it was the coolest thing ever. Who'd have thought puddles in Oregon would seem so novel?

Just this weekend we learned that Ellie-girl can now ride a two wheeler as well! If I thought today was perfect, I can't wait to see how awesome it is when we are riding all together.

What's in YOUR wallet?

Lately I upgraded to a bigger purse. No, this is not noteworthy information likely to change the world, but since then I've been thinking about how a woman's purse represents a part of who she is and what stage of life she is in.

When Aeryn was born, I bought a small wallet on a strap that would be easily tossed into a diaper bag or carried alone if I went out without her (which almost never happened). When she was older and I no longer had to carry spare clothes/diapers/snacks on even the smallest excursions I kept the wallet but traded to a purse that was about 1/3 the size of the diaper bag. I loved how compact it felt even though it was still big enough to hold the DSLR and a granola bar or two. I carried this purse for years. Years. It was seriously my favorite. 

Last fall some friends and I did a clothing swap and someone brought a cute little red purse they didn't need any more. I snatched it up and gave it a whirl. I loved the bright pop of color and how little it was - but it couldn't hold much more than my wallet. It was adequate so I made it work (because it was cute!), but I tired of having to carry a separate bag if I needed anything other than that. 

Now I've upgraded to something bigger once again. It's huge compared to what I've been carrying. The other night when we were headed to a track meet I stuffed jackets for Aeryn & I into it and suddenly realized there was no more room. 

There's 5 separate pockets, and they are all full. 

1. The mom-is-a-medic pocket. Band-aids, Neosporin, cough drops, ibuprofen, dramamine (since Aeryn gets carsick), a tiny emergency flashlight, and a quarter. 
2. The you-never-know pocket. Tissues, a tape measure (which gets used more than you'd think), hair elastic, and a packet of chopped peanuts leftover from a McDonalds hot fudge sundae. 
3. The stuff-I-use-all-the-time pocket. An old grocery list, nail file, pens, hair elastics, lotion, ear phones (that work as a hands-free device while driving) and 5, yes 5, lip products. 
4. The I-forgot-that-was-a-pocket pocket. My carry everywhere notebook, and two more lip products. 
5. The cavern-in-the-middle pocket. Aeryn's camera, an umbrella, more lotion, glasses, baby wipes (because they are indispensable- baby or not), a talk from the previous conference, my wallet, and my very favorite lip gloss of all time (blushing from Sephora). 

It's crazy to see everything that I carry all the time. One thing is for sure, when Squirt was a baby I had nowhere near this much lip gloss. It seems like carrying a bigger purse just means I'll decide I need a lot more stuff. At that rate, I'm really grateful for our tiny apartment. Who knows how much I'd cram into it if it were bigger!

And she blows her top!

Ok, not really, but Mt. Lassen did explode within this century. For Memorial Day weekend we checked #20 off our goal of visiting all the National Parks. Honestly, I'd never heard of Lassen Volcanic National Park until Jim and I started this little adventure. It's a touch embarrassing to admit, really, since I love volcanoes and geology and hydrothermal spiffiness.

Ever heard of it? No? Well, now you have and you should totally go.

One of the cool things about Lassen is the number of hydrothermal features found within the park. There's  this supposedly great area within the park called Bumpass Hell (yes, really) that is laden with hydrothermal activity. The trail was closed due to about 7 feet of snow so we only saw one little spring area.

Fortunately, most of the park was thawed just fine. We decided to hike a Cinder Cone volcano that was about 4 miles round trip. This is the longest hike we've drug Aeryn along on and she did so well I think we can up the mileage next time! As we began the hike we found these Fantastic Lava Beds. That's honestly what they are named but they truly are fantastic. Nature is incredible!

Just because she did well on the hike doesn't mean that she was always bubbling over with joy. About a quarter mile in she started to look like this was indescribable drudgery.

Until we ran into another family hiking with their 4 year old daughter, Zoey. Zoey decided that Aeryn was pretty much the most awesome person on the planet and wanted to be with her every second of the hike. We ended up hiking the rest of the trail together. If we went on ahead, Zoey would holler for Aeryn to wait until they were side by side again. Zoey's mom was quite appreciative to not have to carry her up the hill and loaned Aeryn her trekking stick for the journey. It made Aeryn quite happy.

Before we knew it we were at the top. I was a little surprised to see the double ring at the crater. Aeryn thought being at the top of a volcano was pretty much the coolest thing ever, as evidenced by the way she kept saying "Mommy, this is COOL!" Jim and I thought it was pretty amazing too. There was a trail leading down to the center, but since she was so happy despite it being lunchtime we decided not to push our luck and leave while the mood was still positive.

That afternoon we drove around and visited the other points of interest that were open. There was a trail through the devastation area from the last series of Mt. Lassen's eruptions (ending in 1917) where we could see huge boulders that had been ejected. Some of them were witnessed and photographed while they were still hot. Frankly, I'm glad I've never had to worry about a 2 ton scorching hot boulder falling from the sky anywhere near me.

That is Mt. Lassen in the background. The sun was so harsh that the clouds and snow blended into one bright spot. In person we could see the trails from where snowboarders had spent hours hiking up the mountain to earn the short lived joy of boarding down. When we took this picture a couple of them were in the parking lot after having finished their trip. I can't imagine climbing up a snow covered mountain, with or without a snowboard in tow.

We camped next to Manzanita Lake and it was beautiful. At dusk we walked the trail surrounding the lake where Aeryn explored and climbed and had a marvelous time. Until Jim tried to hold my hand that is, and then she freaked out a little. I'll blame it on having fallen in the lake (barely) while climbing on this log, even though I know that isn't the reason.

Highlights of this trip include:

finding the flush toilets in camp

making chicken fajitas for dinner

shaking chunks of ice off the rainfly when we packed up on Monday morning

Aeryn wanting to live at the Lake forever, and not go to school any more because she will "learn from nature"

surviving freezing temperatures at night

the camp store and it's reasonably priced sodas (root beer is a camping tradition!)

seeing the top of the cinder cone

the sheer number of ridiculous pictures we snapped

 I think we all came home even more excited for our upcoming trip to Yellowstone.