We spent a great day with our friends Sara and Jeff at Lake Cushman. The weather was perfect, the scenery sublime, and the cabin charming. They bid on the cabin at our church's Youth Auction. Forrest, Robby and Taylor had a great time playing with the Super Soakers, reading Calvin & Hobbes, kayaking, sailing and lots of swimming. We ended the day with Lit and Buckley joining us after work for a quick swim, a yummy dinner and then a scary ascent up the steep driveway. When Lit put the Trailblazer in low 4 to get up, he said he knew I was going to have trouble in my little Mazda 5. Overall not a big deal, but the driveway was really narrow with a death drop off to one side. After 2 attempts I took life saving measures and had Forrest get out of the car, then backed up to gain momentum and gunned it up fish-tailing all the way up on the gravel. I made it, but my nerves sure were shot. Our usually calm Forrest was scared and he told me later when he got of the car, he grabbed the most valuable thing in it .... his DS. Hey, what about me!

Relaxing in the sky chair
Robby and Forrest, waaay out on the dingy

Robby and Forrest

Playing Stragego on the deck

View from the deck of Lake Cushman and the Olympics

Marriage...making or breaking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQJvSzkVfRg Sesame Street conversation with Grover about marriage

I've been thinking about marriage a lot lately and what it means in the short and long term. Why? We just had some really good friends get divorced seemingly out of the blue. It really affected Lit and I deeply because not only are we sad for them and their daughter, we have lost a couple friend. We miss our dinners together, our outings and couple friendship.

Are you happily married? Do you not only love but like and respect your spouse? Once the adrenaline wears off, is the relationship downhill from there? What makes a successful marriage? Is it luck, chemistry, commitment, or faith? Tell me your thoughts at the bottom of this post. Click on "comment."

Tennis Camp in 104 degrees!

with their coach - serious players no?

water balloon fight, notice Forrest's Super Soaker

palying doubles

Deaven's "tennis" pose

action pose

first day of tennis, I asked them to do something "tennis-sie"

Tennis camp was this past week. Forrest and his buddy Deaven endured 4 days of brutal heat. Temperatures topped out on Wednesday with a 31 year record high of 104 degrees, with high humidity. We were lucky camp was only in the morning. To us Northwestern-weather-wimps, this was truly cruel and unusual punishment. The boys handled it really well and never complained. The counselors were awesome and allowed the kids lots of water time, including running through park sprinklers and water balloon fights. On the last day I brought popsicles for all and they enjoyed a fierce water fight.

Faith Lutheran's Science Fair

Forrest's first science fair. His questions was: Does the length of pendulum affect how long it swings? He created a hypothesis and proved himself wrong.

Feedback from other students on his comment sheet included things like: "Cool", "Very cool", "I really like this." Very descriptive, no?

Camp Invention 2009

Another successfull year at Camp Invention. This hat was designed for wacky hat day. Notice the Corp of Engineers emblem with "Dudley" underneath. This was Lit's army construction hat.

With his wonder counselor.

An invention...

Outdoor Adventures

Tulip Festival, Mount Vernon

Dungenous Spit, Washington

Mt. Rainier or bust!

On a warm sunny day, we set out one morning to hike Rainier. It turned out to be a gorgeous with clear skies and warm temps. We hiked a 5.5 mile trail to Fremont Fire Lookout, elevation 7100 ft. It was a arduous hike and the boys really persavered. Notice the drop on the one picture where the trail was a mere 2 feet wide with a rocky drop to the right. The momma was nervous!

Egg Drop challange - design and build an egg catcher

that will catch an egg dropped from 30 ft or higher.

Forrest used grass clippings and was successful along

with his buddies Korban and Deaven. Winners received

a golden egg. Way to go guys!

Masterwork's Upcoming 29th Year!

We had a fantastic 28th season! We managed to survive a challenging fiscal year that took down a lot of non-profit art organizations. That is really attribute to our fantastic and talented Director and committed Board members (of which I am one!). We have a exciting upcoming season with, as always, a variety of music to share. Check out our newly designed website: http://www.mce.org/

Oh Happy Day! Lucas Graduates from High School

Lucas graduated from Roosevelt High School in June. We are all very proud, he worked hard, got his credits, and persevered. He is headed for a Gap Year where he will spend 8 weeks in India doing some volunteer work, return home and work, then who knows where to next? Lucas, go find your life's passion, and if you can't find that...go get a job that makes lots of money!

Washington's Wintery Beach

Nothing says a Washington beach like these photos. Cold, grey, zero visibility and fun! Forrest and I spent a weekend of clamming at Pacific Beach in January with our good friends, Eika & Darrell and Megan & Brian and kids. While we had no luck with clamming, we had a fun relaxing time on a wintry beach.

Happy New Year! 2009 Already?

The year is off running. Ingrid spent the week with us instead of going to a YMCA camp. On Friday we went bowling with some friends. We had 9 kids with us. Luckily we had the entire bowling alley to ourselves so that no one was bothered by our wandering 2 year olds, our shoe-less bowlers, the balls that would hit the floor with a painful blow (really, I can't believe we didn't leave the place with a gaping hole), Peyton and Mallorie playing "Little Mermaid" atop the ball returns, and the usual general mayhem of 9 kids and 3 moms having too much fun. After bowling we stopped by the Thurston County Animal Shelter where Ingrid got a lesson on animal control. It wasn't easy explaining to a sweet and innocent little girl what "putting down" an animal means. I kept trying to dance around the "k" word, when Forrest and Zack just put it right out there and said it like it is: "They kill the dogs." Ingrid's face fell in total horror. I'm afraid our little trip to the dog pound may have scared her for life. Sorry Eika and Darrell.

Later that day...I took Zack, Ingrid, Forrest and Buckley to Capital Forest. The park was closed but we parked at the closed gates and walked in. My child had a near-to-close emotional break down. He is mastering the art of the Poor Pity Me. Hum, could it have any thing to do with staying up until 11:15 pm with his friends the night before? I'm really good at this psychological stuff.

Virginia Tech beat some team that starts with a "c." We had 3 couples over to watch the game and feast on: ham & bean soup, Ciopinno, bread, clam cakes, meatballs, and lots of yummy appetizers. The evening was filled with lots of belly laughs, the kind that...(well, you know ladies). Can't think of a better way to spend the first day of the New Year!

Christmas Holiday

Hanging out with Ingrid, Peyton, Deaven & Morgan. That day they played, lets run away from the very intimidating 15 lb. 2-year old Morgan.

Our lovely but look-but-don't-touch or don't-breathe too hard DRY tree. Seriously, I thought this thing was going to internally combust. After the gifts were opened on Christmas day, I had to keep myself from tearing it down right then and there. I didn't though. Isn't there a law again't that? Our favorite gifts: Forrest: Wii & DS games, Lit: waffle maker, Rachelle: custom-made tote for choir rehearsals, Buckley: the laser flashlight-pointer thing that he completely ignores. We spent Christmas evening with Eika & Darrell. Our great friends. They made a yummy meal of ham, squash, rice. For dessert Eika made a bread pudding that was to die for. We drank lots of wine and talked about everything.

It snowed so much here, that even a tow truck going through our neighborhood got stuck! There was something very disconcerting about that...

Lovely but deadly. Casualties of this years beautiful snow: our 85 year old Camellia tree (I cried about that one), the roundish-bush in front now has gaping holes in it, a huge branch came crashing down within centimeters hitting our house ( still can't figure out where it came from). I'm sure there are more surprises around the corner.

Big, Bigger, Biggest

On the way home this afternoon, Forrest and his friends, Deaven and Payton, made a snow ball. They had to abandon it 1/2 block from our house as it got too big. Later in the day, Forrest begged me to go get the snow ball with him. So begrudgingly, I put on my boots, coat, gloves, and hat to go pick up this darn snow ball so he would stop bugging me. Low and behold, I cannot just "pick it up." You can guess what happened next...what a mother will do for her child! So Forrest and I begin rolling this thing to our house. Meanwhile, every foot or so, this ball is rapidly increasing in size. By the time we get it to the corner, we are really working hard. Out of the blue, two kind people from the neighborhood on yonder, offer to help. For 10 minutes, 3 adults and 1 child maneuver this thing out into the street, huffing and puffing, now rolling it up a slight incline to our driveway. We don't know these folks, but we do have a giant snow ball in our yard thanks to them!

Snow Day!

Today is a snow day! Not school, no plans, just a stay-in-doors-and-light-a-fire-kinda-day. We rarely get snow here so this is a real treat. It's cold, cold, cold. We Pacific Northwester's are utter weather wimps. In the summer when temperatures get into the 90's we all begin to melt. With cold temps, it's no difference. We all scramble to find our winter hats, gloves and warmest jackets. Let's not forget the mad dash to find our kid's snow pants and snow boots (worn only 1-2 times last year) only to find them 3 sizes too small! This is Forrest's and my conversation regarding snow boots: "Push" I say. "I am, I am, I'm doing the best I can. Mom these boots are way too small, they hurt." "No they're not, try harder!" I say. After investigative work, I realize the boots are a size 1 and Forrest is currently wearing size 4 shoes. Oops!