Up and Away Over Mt St Helens

When my best geology bud from college mentioned they were up in the Pacific Northwest I thought it'd be fun to meet them up at Mt St Helens.  It's one of our favorite places to drive up to and I sure love Keryn and her family.  Little did I expect Keryn to invite me to join her on her helicopter tour of the volcano.

We headed up a couple hours after church on the 5th to meet them at the helicopter site.  I was a little nervous, but not terribly so.  Flying freaks me out a bit right now, but mostly because I'm scared half to death of leaving my children motherless.  The helicopter was so smooth, it shocked me.  It even took me a second to realize we were off the ground.  I'm a definite fan now.

It was so cool to see inside the crater, to see the fumaroles up close and just see how the devastation spread out from the eruption.  We spent a lot of time in geology talking about the miniscule things, ie crystal structure, that underly the big events, but nothing quite compares to the cataclysms of volcanoes and earthquakes!

After the helicopter ride we drove up the road to another visitor's center with an awesome playground and had a picnic.  What a great day!  I'm so glad we can see them whenever we visit Utah.  Thanks again, Keryn!

Keryn was so excited!

The kids were sad to see us go.

Inside the crater.

The path of destruction.

Some fumaroles.

A hot tub right in the crater.  Looks nice and warm.

That's not shoreline, those are all the dead trees in Spirit Lake.

Mt St Helens in all its glory.

The fams.

No, that picture is not blurry, the trees are.  It was driving Keryn and Brad crazy and then drove us crazy when they pointed it out :)

House Work

I just had a couple pictures and such to add to what Jacob has already put up.  It's been pretty exciting watching the new house come together.  It was frustrating how long it took to get all the i's dotted and t's crossed, but now that we are making progress I'm loving it.   They'll be pouring the flatwork in the basement and stairs tomorrow and hopefully start framing on Wednesday.  I'm pretty sure we're still on track for a December finish.  Sometimes it feels strange that we're doing this, I never pictured myself living in a new home.  My biggest hope is that this will be a place people want to come, visitors will feel welcome, and the kids will feel safe and happy.

This mound of dirt has turned out to be a great place to watch all the construction going on.  It won't be there forever though.  The kids have been getting dirty like crazy, they better enjoy it because I'm planning to get the landscaping done ASAP.

Poor Fefe was so tired, she just had to sit down and play the Iphone for a bit.  I've been ambivalent about taking the kids with me to the lot each time we work on the retaining wall.  They love playing over there for about an hour and then want to go home.  Plus, did I mention how dirty they get?  It's been good to have them do some hard labor though.  Gotta toughen them up.

Summer Randoms

Not enough to get their own post, but worth a look!

"I really want to go to the skate park."  Hard to deny that face. 

Apparently the kids were having too much fun during Sunday nap time.

Fefe loved her tractor ride with Taunya.

Balloon animals from the Intel picnic.

Monkey boy.

Somebody wants attention.

He's practicing for gymnastics.  That or it's time for a good lick.

Somebody wants attention again.

4th of July deliciousness.

My new accessory.

Cub Scout Daycamp

The week after trek we had cub scout day camp.  Since Jacob is the cubmaster and I'm a den leader, we're both pretty heavily involved in the planning for it.  I can't say I'm ever super excited to take that many boys of that age anywhere, but they were a really good group this year.  Plus, Camp Ireland did a great job with the activities.  They had a medieval theme and our two groups were The Lords and The Jesters.  Brigham is starting to grow out of some of what they do, but this was his last year.  We get six straight years of this between Brigham and Luke.

Catapult - Castle Attack

BB Guns

Pan pipes.

Waiting in the heat for parents.

Taekwondo On the Beach

The taekwondo studio that Brigham attends has an annual beach trip every year.  Some of them camp for a couple nights, but the big activity is doing their forms on the beach Saturday afternoon.  I was a little nervous about the weather, but it is so rare to find a good day at the beach that we just decided to go for it.  The weather turned out to be pretty decent.  It wasn't hot, but it was warm enough.  It was sunny and there was barely any wind.  Not bad at all.

I love it when the kids hold hands.

Yes, he did that on purpose.

Phoebe's fondest dreams came true, she got a mermaid tail.

Sadly, it took them awhile to get started so Brigham was only able to participate for about 1/2 hour before we had to head out.

Trek, Day 4, Hot as He#!*

Is that appropriate?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

Plugging along.  Thursday morning, I slept in till 6:30am.  Yuck.  MM and I had to drive into Kennewick.  I needed dry ice for root beer and MM needed to get all the family and company pictures printed.  Thankfully the Fred Meyer had enough dry ice.  I needed over 50 lbs of dry ice.  I had called them in advance and just prayed that would do the trick.  I bought myself a pair of flip flops too.  My ankles were getting seriously chafed from wearing boots and socks in that heat.  It was so strange to be in the Fred Meyer.  My trek clothing wasn't too weird, but I was definitely envious of the normal clothes in there.

The printing was going to take several hours so MM and I headed back to camp.  I wanted to get started on the root beer so it would be ready for the kids when they arrived at base camp.  They were supposed to arrive at around 11am, but things didn't go quite according to plan.  It took them awhile to get going on the last stretch.  Plus that last stretch turned out to be much longer than they planned on.  Not only that, but a small group decided to take a shorter route that lead them to a cliff.  Elle was part of that group.  In the middle of getting the root beer ready (thankfully aunt Julie was there to help), I was pulled into the cooling trailer.  Elle had fallen apart right at the end.  That last day ended up being the hottest day of the trek.  She was so devastated that she wasn't able to finish it.  Once she was feeling better I took her over to where the carts were pulling into camp.  It took them a long time to trickle in.  They had to take a few trucks over to rescue some people.  They were dropping like flies again.  The kids were so excited when they made it to base camp though.  The green grass alone was enough to lift their spirits.  They had sprinklers going at the end of the strip.  I even took a quick run through it.  By this point we were stripping down to our bloomers.  Some lucky dogs had even brought regular clothing. Wish I had thought of that.

There were a few activities set up for the kids, but it was pretty casual.  The root beer was delicious, even if we did use hose water to make it.  At least it was potable!

By the end of the evening, Elle was wilting again.  She had gotten pretty severely dehydrated.  She spent the last couple hours in one of the RV's, resting in the AC, she even slept for a bit.  We ended up going into Hermiston with Aunt Julie and spending the night in their hotel room.  I bought Elle a plate of bacon at the Denny's next door.  I did some wash too, but my whites needed a serious amount of bleach.  It was nice to wear mostly clean clothes AND to have a hot shower!  The bed was nice, but I still only got about 5 hours of sleep that night.  Uncle Robert and I headed back into camp at 6:30am while Elle slept in.  She and Aunt Julie got in at around 9:30am.

There was a closing talk at the end.  The buses weren't scheduled to arrive till around 11:30 so they did an impromptu square dance.  It was a great idea, everyone was dying to get home, but it took their minds off of it.  I rode home on Elle's bus.  Turned out to be a bad bus though.  It started overheating when we hit Cascade Locks.  They tried to fix it, but were unsuccessful.  We ended up squishing onto the other two buses that were with us.  I had to sit on the floor for a while, but a nice young man eventually gave me his seat (I sound like an old lady, don't I?).  If we had been delayed long enough I would have had Jacob come and pick us up.

Arriving home was beautiful.  Got everything put away, took a long and cleansing shower and slept for about 17 hours that night.  Elle took about a week to feel better, but they told us to expect that.  Poor kid.

The best part was listening to some of the youth speakers on Sunday.  It definitely made a huge impression on them.  There's nothing quite like hard work mixed with some spirituality.

Trek, Day 3, AKA Hump Day

I was able to take my time getting ready on the 3rd morning because I wasn't trekking anymore.  Elle was sad, but I was looking forward to a bit more of Zion.  This does not mean I'm not tough!  I'm plenty tough, I could have done two weeks of this :)  I just like my comforts too. Not that Zion was that much more comfortable.  Apparently there were a plethora of ticks down there.  Luckily I never saw one.

Once the trekkers took off, we took all the supplies back to base camp and the next nights camping spot.  There was a lot happening behind the scenes that the kids didn't see.  Initially we tried to keep the vehicles out of sight, but with all the dehydrations and such, it wasn't worth it.  I rode with Uncle Robert up to the first cache and then we took a load to the campsite.  The kids had a visit from "Ephraim Hanks" at that first stopping pointing.  I didn't listen, but it got rave reviews.  A boy also road up on a horse and delivered some mail (Pony Express).

That afternoon I helped the kitchen staff get dinner and breakfast for the next day all organized.  I was supposed to help out with the hair washing station up with the trekkers, but plead out of it.  Yes, I'm lazy sometimes.   Elle had a small bout of dehydration again that night, but she came out of it pretty quickly.  By this point I believed her that she was drinking enough.  The vast majority of kids that had problems were the younger, smaller ones.  Their little bodies just couldn't handle the heat.  Tuesday and Wed weren't quite as bad heat wise and the fact that they stopped before the worst of the heat did help a ton.

There were a lot more mosquitoes down at Base Camp, but it was lovely to pitch my tent in grass.  I got bit on my booty twice, right through my pants!  One of my friends had an area fogger that at least kept them down around my tent.  I also had my hair washed with vinegar and baking soda (what they used at the aforementioned hair washing station).  It was fabulous to have clean hair, even if the rest of my body was disgusting.  I brought along some wet wipes to wipe down with, but they barely put a chink in it.  I think I got to bed around 10 or 11 that night.  I had cell phone reception most everywhere I went so I was able to stay in contact with Jacob all week.  I sure missed the other kids.  Jacob took the week off from work to stay home with the munchkins.  He texted this picture and it sure made me crave some civilization.

Trek, Day 2

I think I got a total of maybe 4 hours of sleep the first night.  Not good, but adrenaline was still pumping.  The powers that be decided to have us start an hour earlier and get all the trekking done before the afternoon, when the temperatures were at their highest.  This was my one and only day to spend with the trekkers all day.  I was at the very front with the staff cart.  I just had to push periodically when we were going uphill or over bumpy ground.  I'm so glad we did it earlier in the day.  We reached our first stop at about 9am.  The kids got a potty break and the staff brought tons of ice blocks to dump in all the water coolers.  It made a huge difference having cold water.    The staff also gave all the families cookies, but no one was allowed the eat them yet.  The kids weren't happy about that!  Little did they know that they would be used for bargaining at an upcoming Indian encounter :).

The next stretch took a couple of hours.  Most of the time the surface wasn't too bad.  The very last, we took a shortcut and had to walk through and around a lot of sticker bushes.  We made it through unscathed though.  As soon as we arrived, everyone started putting up their shade tarps.  We had some activities planned, but decided to wait till 4.  Some people were able to take naps during the long break.  A lot of kids were putting on some pretty heavy duty water fights.  The "Indians" came during this time, but I was feeling too lazy to participate in that. I tried to nap, but it was too hot and uncomfortable.  We mostly just sat in the shade, shooting the breeze.  Elle did get a tiny bit dehydrated, but they perked her up in the first aid tent after a few minutes.

I was in charge of the stilts for the afternoon activity.  I didn't have to do much, mostly just sit there and make sure the kids didn't break them.  It was funny to watch the boys teaching the girls.  Flirting with stilts.  The kids were pretty wasted after all the rotations were done, my last group mostly just sat there except for a few die hards.  Elle was able to get a bulls eye at the tomahawk station and everyone was shocked.  She has good aim.  Dinner was delicious, Dinty Moore, my favorite!    I was so hungry those first couple of days and I was craving meat in particular.  It's amazing how much hunger can make even processed food heavenly.

After dinner was the square dancing.  Elle was so excited.  I don't think more than a handful of kids didn't participate.  It was a huge success.  I was just amazed that they could continue to have that much energy after that long of a day and such little sleep.  I would have gone to sleep early that night, but the square dancers were occupying the space my tent was supposed to be in.

I slept much better that night, in my own little pup tent.  The ear plugs I brought were amazing, but they sure didn't drown out the morning bugle.

Trek Beginning and Day 1

Our stake put together a Pioneer Handcart Trek for the youth this summer.  It was for all the youth, ages 12-18.  I was pretty anxious to go because I wanted to keep an eye on Elle and I wanted to be a part of it too.  I was starting to get nervous that I wouldn't be able to.  I kept asking and asking, but no one would ever get back to me.  Finally, a friend in the ward told me how she didn't feel like she should go and that I was welcome to take her place.  It didn't take me long to get approval and I was in!  Initially I was just going to help with the wilderness survival class on the first day, but they needed more people on the activities committee.  I met some great people (truly talented) on that committee.  I was given different assignments for each day.  Initially we thought I'd be able to trek with the kids all four days, but logistically it turned out to be easier to just do the first two days and then stay at base camp the rest of the time.

The week leading up to trek was pretty easy for Elle and I.  All our stuff had been checked in a week before so we didn't have anything to stress about.  We woke up bright and early, at 4:30am on Monday, July 13th to head to the church and get on the buses.  In hindsight I really wished I'd driven, but ciest la vie.  Elle and I were on separate buses, but I was fine with that.  Even though I was going on Trek, I still wanted her to have a separate experience.  The bus ride was dang boring!  I wish I had brought a book.  I tried to sleep, but without a pillow, it was impossible.  The highlight of the ride was when the kids started timing how long it took others to use the bathroom.  Amazing what boredom will do to you.

When we arrived at Bing Canyon (45 min SW of Kennewick), the handcarts were all lined up and the Ma's and Pa's were ready to collect their kids.  The weather that week was supposed to be above 100 degrees every day.  It made me a tad nervous, but there was some pretty heavy emphasis on drinking enough.  The start of the day wasn't too bad because it was overcast.  It didn't really start to warm up till the afternoon, but it was blazing by then!  The first stretch was pretty short.  Once we stopped, everyone ate lunch and then there were some certification and other classes for the kids to rotate through.  I spent 2 1/2 hours lecturing 5 different groups on Wilderness Survival.  It wasn't too bad of a task.  I tried cracking a few jokes, but some of the groups were more responsive than others.

It was very hot!  Elle was doing pretty good at this point.  There were several places to fill up water.  We had been told that one of the water sources located next to the porta potties were safe to drink from, but it tasted disgusting!  I found out later that day that it was actually not drinking water. No kidding!  Sadly, some people didn't find out till the last day of trek.  During the classes, some people were going around and squirting us with water.  Ordinarily I don't care for wet clothing, but it sure felt good.  After the classes were over, everyone loaded up and took off for the next stretch.  I stayed behind to help take down all the pop ups and other supplies.  We took everything back to base camp and I had my first view of Zion (base camp).  It was definitely gorgeous compared to the rest of the desert.

I think I spent a few hours in base camp and then we got news that kids were started to drop like flies up at the stopping point for the trekkers.  The last stretch of the day was to do a rope pull up a very steep slope.  Each company had to man the ropes and pull one cart up at a time.  I think they didn't expect it to take as long as it did.  That aspect probably contributed to a lot of the trouble.  I just knew Elle would be one of them.

I was not wrong.  I headed right up.  She looked like she was doing okay, but she was pretty nauseated.  I initially thought she wasn't drinking enough.  I kept ragging her about how much she had drunk and she was getting pretty irritated with me.  We went and sat in the first aid tent for a while, but eventually decided to take her down to base camp and put her in the misting room (they had a hazmat type trailer setup with a misting system).  It was fabulous how well it worked.  It didn't take Elle long to feel back to 100%.  We had to wait a bit to get back up to camp, I think we finally made it by around 9pm.  We were both exhausted, but I didn't expect to sleep well because of the heat.  I ended up sleeping in Elle's family tent with her.  As predicted it took me forever to fall asleep.  It got really windy too and the way the tent was whipping around drove me crazy!  Amazingly, Elle slept better than I did.

Yellow Belt to Blue

While Elle and I were gone on trek, Brigham took his promotion test at his Taekwondo studio to move from yellow to blue belt.  This is the first promotion test I didn't see.  I was a little sad to miss it, but he did great!  I wish I had put him in this years ago.