Camping again!

So here I am realizing that I have once again gotten behind on my blog updates. I am going to pretend that it was intentional and I would appreciate if you would play along. Just think of it this way, instead of posting right after a fun event when I am already on a vacation high, in my lack of timeliness I will say that I am pleasantly reflecting on recent events. In a way this spreads out the excitement, making it seem to last longer. As opposed to posting immediately and crashing back to reality upon noting that we will have to go back to regular life with work and laundry. Or if you see through all that smoke and mirrors, you will know I am still a procrastinator with things that don’t have a hard and fast deadline, such as this blog! Whatever side you feel may be the truth, here us an update on our camping trip from a few weeks ago.

The bulk of hay harvest was wrapping up, finally! Dusty and I were hoping to sneak in a few days in our favorite local camping spot before he got wrapped up into wheat harvest. However, since finishing up hay is sort of an intangible thing and there were a lot of factors playing into when the guys would call it quits for a few days, knowing when exactly we could go was a bit of a mystery. With farming there is always a long list of things that “should” be done but could wait if they are less of a priority to other things on the list. We knew we would take the 5th wheel and go camping north of Sandpoint for about three days. We didn’t know exactly when those three days were going to start.

At the time we were working through all of this information (or lack there-of) we had some friends from our church mention they were planning to go camping too. They had a location in mind but didn’t have it set in stone. Dusty and I thought it would be fun if they came camping at our spot and since our friends are very patient people they waited around to hear word if our camping timeline would line up with theirs! By some sort of farming miracle, and Dusty working more hours in two days than I thought humanly possible, everything timed out perfectly.

We all caravanned north and set up our site. There were eleven big kids, nine little kids and two dogs all running around in the woods. It was a busy place and we all had a great time. The majority of our group (especially the littlest bunch) could be found in the creek or at the pond for a large majority of the trip. The men also worked on a dam and managed to make a pretty significant pool of water. Of course there were campfires, s’mores, and time to just relax. The kids even made it through the vigorous hike to the waterfall! I was really impressed with their endurance considering the oldest of the kids was all of six years old.

After a wonderful weekend, our friends packed up and headed home. Dusty went up the cabin to visit his Great Uncle Everett and see if he needed help with any projects. While they were working I got our 5th wheel ready to travel. Then I took a nap. Before I hit the couch I put the dogs in their kennels, which were tucked in the shade under the hitch of our trailer, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them wandering off. This is where things got really interesting. I’d been lounging for a while and had just left consciousness when I woke up to one of the dogs barking. It seemed strange because it wasn’t a bark I heard very often. Coby barks at just about everything; however the sound I was hearing was Moosey. I sat up and I saw moose… not our Moosey but a big honking mama moose! She was huge and standing just a few feet off the end of our trailers awning. I sat there frozen for a moment, very glad I had put the dogs in their boxes and even more relieved that I decided to nap inside as opposed to on the hammock outside! Then the moose darted off towards the thick brush. Her movement unfroze me and I darted too, for my camera. I watched and waited, trying to catch a glimpse of the moose peeking from the bushes. I had just given up and went back to cleaning when the pups both started barking again. I looked out the window and saw the moose slowly skirting the edge of our campground with her baby. She was much further away this time but clearly visible. It was so cool to watch her move through the trees and out of sight. A little later, Dusty came back from the cabin and we too started our trip back home, but unlike everyone else I had moose pictures!

Our yard cow...?

Yes it is true, if you drive by our house you can see a cow in our yard. No, we haven't totally lost our minds and mixed up our "vastly spacious" yard with the cow's pasture. We did have a mama cow that wouldn't "take" her calf after it was born. Why would that happen? Well, to make a long story short, their was a boy calf (a bull) a while ago that was slightly resistant to the banding that should have turned him into a steer. So while this bull calf no longer has "a pair" he did manage to sneak by with one dangler. Which is where the problem started with the calf in our yard. That lucky little not-so-fixed steer was let out with all the cows and hefers (young female cows) and managed to do the job of a big bull. Not only that but since our lucky fellow was still small in stature thought he would be best suited for the young lady cows in the bunch. That's right he is a craddle robber! This lead to Mr. Lucky fathering a calf with a VERY young hefer. In our culture this is commonly refered to as a teenage pregnancy! When that poor hefer become a mother she entered cow-hood not near mature enough to have the instincts to take care of her baby when it was born, meaning we had to do the mothering for her. So that is why we now have that baby cow in our yard. Well, I guess that wasn't such a short story afterall, but just incase it wasnt enough wordage here are a few more in picture form.

 This is our "yard cow," Gertrude. We call her Gerty for short.

Gerty follows Dusty EVERYWHERE

Ahhhh, Vacation

What do you do your husband is working too many hours go on vacation? Just write about when he wasn’t so busy!


Just before the end of the school year our friends Craig and Michelle invited us to come on a fun trip with them and some other college buddies to the Washington coast. Craig’s family has a great cabin right on the beach with a large section of waterfront. Even better, it is on a sweet island, Harstine Island to be exact!

Even though there was a sizeable cabin, Dusty and I opted to take our fifth wheel camper for our sleeping quarters since there were quite a few people already bunking in the cabin. As if we needed another excuse to use our new toy!

It was a wonderful long weekend full of exploring the sea life at low tide, biking, good food, kayaking, bonfires, racquet sports on a real court, reading, ladder ball, and lots playing with the dogs. There were plenty of dogs on the trip too; thankfully they even managed to get along most of the time. Our Moosey loved playing fetch on the beach, even though the shells made her paws sore at times. Dusty and I loved having other people who didn’t mind taking a turn at throwing the ball for her so our arms could have a break. Here are some pictures showing all our fun!

Memorial Day Weekend Camping

Here are a sampling of pictures from our camping trip earlier this year. It was a great trip and we loved hanging out in our camper in the evenings when the spring air made it a bit chilly out and the damp surroundings from recent storms made conditions for starting a fire less than than ideal. Despite the rains before we arrived, a sprinkle on the way there and a warning of precip from every weather website, we had glorious weather! It was sunny and warmer than any days in our recent memory.Unfortunately most of our friends we scared off by the weather mans doom and gloom forecast. As it turned out there was just three of us on this trip, yes that does include Dusty and me too! Otto, our one guest, was very disappointed he didn't even get to test out his new hiking tent and rain fly seeing as we did not get a drop of rain after setting up camp. Every one had their own reasons for missing, all sicere and understandable. The sad part is when friends tell us they will go "next time." Why is that sad, doesn't it sound like a good thing? In a perfect world I would be thrilled to hear that and look forward to then. However, in reality, since I know my farmer husband will now be working his tail off till next fall, that "next time trip" isn't likely anytime soon. Yes, we may sneak in a overnight in the camper here or there but since we typically don't have more than a days notice when the stars align for such an event, which means most friends schedule is not flexible enough to come along. Oh well, we had tons of fun and we can cross our fingers and pray for another shot later in the summer! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

 

The Hawaii Novel

We had a wonderful time in Hawaii. Here is an overly detailed rundown of some, ok most all, of the fun things we did while there. If you are not into reading right now feel free to skip ahead and just look at the pictures. However, the pictures are not in chronological order due to the fact that we were using two cameras that happen to have ended up on the same image numbers. This recount of our adventure is more for us to remember all the details when we are old, than anything else, but we thought others might find it interesting.

Wednesday I went to school in the morning to teach my 5th graders. The when I got home I double checked our bags for the zillionth time and hopped in the truck to go out to the airport. Somewhere along the way we miscalculated when we would need to leave. Now, don’t worry we didn’t miss our flight, quite the opposite really. We checked our bag, got through security, found our gate and I looked at my watch to see that we had two hours and ten minutes until our flight... What?!? We are still not exactly sure how we ended up so far ahead of necessary, but I suppose it was better than the opposite situation. All the free time gave us a chance to play games on my iPod.

Once it was finally time to board our flight, the experience was as expected, long and slightly cramped. We landed just after dark and took a shuttle to our hotel. We wanted to get out and stretch our legs some so we took the opportunity to do the first of many wanderings along the beach shops. Our jaunt out required a very important stop at Yogurt Land for some pineapple bliss in a cup. We were fading fast despite all the energy around us because it felt three hours later due to the time change, so then it was back to our hotel to crash.

Thursday morning we were up early (again because of the time change) to go to Pearl Harbor and the battleship Missouri. We were very impressed by the battleship because it was so big and had a wealth of history to go with it. The information our tour guide gave us about the cannon like guns that stocked the ship was astounding. Each of the nine deck guns supports a 16 inch barrel and can deliver a 2000 pound shell 23 miles. Every 30 seconds the nine rounds from the ship can level an area the size of a football field. Since we did the battleship first, then went to the sunken Arizona we had a much clearer picture of some of the boat components that were laying in the murky water below us in Pearl Harbor.

After leaving Pearl Harbor we stopped at the grocery store to stock up our little kitchenette with a few basic necessities like diet coke, bananas, bread, milk and peanut butter. It was very nice to have our own little fridge, microwave and toaster. I am sure it saved us a good deal of money since we didn’t “have to” eat out every time we were hungry. Once we filled our fridge we put on our swim stuff and walked to the beach just a block and a half away. The next hour or so we soaked up the sun (and plenty of sand too) before going back to our room to get cleaned up for dinner. We ate at Chili’s then walked around the international marketplace.
We kept our busy pace Friday by getting up and out the door to the Dole plantation. I was worried about the weather since it poured rain the whole time we were riding the bus there. I should clarify, this was not your typical little Hawaiian mist; we are talking windshield wipers full blast and puddle sized raindrops kind of rain. As we made the short walk from the bus stop to the main entrance I was lamenting the fact I had forgotten to bring my rain jacket or any other manor of sleeves, since the weather near our hotel had been lovely. I decided I didn’t want to be cold in the rain the rest of the day so I went about picking out a lightweight sweatshirt. I found a really cute green one and had no sooner finished paying and exited the gift shop when the sun burst back through the clouds. The rest of the day was beyond warm and I had absolutely no need of my cute new sweatshirt. Did I appreciate the weather’s sense of irony? No. But did I tolerate it due to the fact it helped me gain an otherwise completely unnecessary new sweatshirt? Yes! Now, on with the plantation tour. We found the train which took us around the farm a bit smaller that we had expected but equally fun. It was really interesting to hear how pineapples are farmed and see the variety of colors, sizes and shapes they come in. I never knew pineapples came in a pink variety too. After the train we wandered through the various garden areas, got our fill of informational signs, bought a yummy Dole whip (pineapple soft serve ice cream) and went catch our bus to the North shore.

The North shore had very quaint little shops but neither of us felt like spending time inside now that the sun had come out again. So we went to Waimea Valley botanical gardens for a little hike. The gardens and the unusual plants were gorgeous! The highlight of our walk was seeing a waterfall at the end of the trail. I was surprised to see people swimming in the pool below the falls. There were lifeguards and everything. The lowlight of the trek was when I fell and seriously scraped up my knees. Apparently I am not capable of looking up at a tree, walking down a hill, stepping on a small stick, and keeping myself upright all at the same time. Luckily my awkward blunder and subsequent childlike whining was only witnessed by about 3 people (one of which was Dusty) and the previously mentioned lifeguards had band aids! Despite having a very five year old like spill it was a fun hike.

It was still mid afternoon and fairly sunny as we walked down the road and found ourselves a nice spot to watch the big waves roll in at Waimea Bay. To keep in form with the “acting like a five year old” theme I had established with my fall, Dusty had a good time playing in the sand, making a giant mound and trying to protect it as the waves washed it away. I asked for a castle and instead he makes me a pile, stating he didn’t have the appropriate tools, aka a bucket, to make castle. Before too long it got a little overcast so we got on our bus and enjoyed a view down the windward side of the island. We stopped at Ala Moana shopping center and looked at a few stores before buying dinner and Cinnabons to take back to our hotel.

Diamond Head volcano crater was first on our hit list for Saturday morning. Although the climb is just under a mile each way, it is plenty strenuous. There is a 560 foot elevation gain from the base and the trail is jagged stone and dirt mixed with tunnels and stairs, with the last tenth of a mile up being all stairs. The view from the top of the old military bunker is well worth the hike. To be honest, the way down was worse than the way up since my legs were a bit shaky from the stairs and I was afraid I would trip again.

From Diamond Head we went to Sea Life Park. The dolphins were amazing to watch. We could have paid to swim with the dolphins and although it looked fun it was more expensive than we were willing to pay. We were more than content watching their show. I was so impressed with the show they put on. They could do so many tricks and stunts. I was also perplexed by the resident Wholphin. Yes, that is a whale crossed with a dolphin. It is the only one known of in the world. It was neat to see penguins, sea lions, monk seals, sharks, rays and tropical fish. I also liked the park because I got to feed sea turtles. What can I say; I am a sucker for animals.

We rode the bus back home but the day wasn’t over yet. That night we went to a luau! I just can’t believe the way that those hula girls can shake it! We both really enjoyed the dinner. It was neat to see them take the roast pig out of the pit in the ground and nobody ever complains about an all you can eat buffet.

Sunday morning we took the bus to Haunama Bay to swim with the fishes. I had a defective snorkel mask or possibly a defective forehead. It gave me all sorts of trouble by putting pressure right in between my eyebrows when it was “suctioned on.” I seriously thought I was going to have a bruise. When the mask wasn’t on super tight causing the pressure, it had a very slow leak. Just a few drops of ocean at a time would sneak their way in but eventually those little drops would start to gang up on my eyes and then I would have to stop and let them all out. Thus, I would have to put my mask on really tight again. Most of the time it worked well enough to get by and allowed me to see lots of awesome creatures. Some of the notable animals we saw were multi colored sea urchins, an angel fish bigger than any I have ever seen in a pet shop, the Hawaiian state fish with a name longer than this blog (but only by a little), a puffer fish as big as my parents dog Bandit but without legs, a striped eel that made me really freak out as it slithered by, and a sea turtle but unfortunately we were no longer in the water when we spotted him. Best of all we discovered Dusty can almost float in salt water.

We were so worn out from swimming all morning we HAD to go and take nap before dinner. I think Dusty spent most of the nap watching Deadliest Catch but how would I know, I was lights out. When I woke up I was refreshed but starving. We got dressed up and went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. There was a wait to get seated and that made me hungry-grumpy. We couldn’t kick the hungry part of that but while we were waiting we got rid of the grumpy with a little retail therapy. Dusty informed me that his dad had slipped him some money before we left Spokane and told him to surprise me with something on our trip. And Dusty did just that when we found a beautiful but slightly pricey hair barrette I really liked. Soon we got called to be seated for dinner and man, did it hit the spot!

Sleeping in was our only plan for Monday. We had toyed with the idea of hopping to another island for a day but since our pace for the trip had been quite brisk we decided to just relax and enjoy the area near our hotel. We spent most of our time Monday sitting on the beach, lunching on leftovers in our room and looking through more shops and it made for a perfect day. Later in the afternoon we walked to the Hilton Hawaiian village and had fun taking pictures by the lagoon. After that we walked to the beach to take a few pictures at sunset. While we were walking on the docks in the marina we saw weird looking ripples in the water. Upon closer inspection we could see that there were jelly fish shuffling around beneath the surface of the water. Tons of them! It made me very glad I didn’t act out my plan to sit down and dip my toes in off the edge of the dock. After our photo session we had dinner at Red Lobster and then walked home along the beach.

We had so enjoyed the day of relaxing, that Tuesday we basically had a repeat of Monday with just a little less sleeping in. We tried to go to the restaurant in our hotel lobby for breakfast and were most surprised to see the doors closed and menus all taken down. I asked the gal at the front desk if it was going to be open later that day and she said in an excessively cheerful voice “No they are closed. Never to be open again!” Her chipper tone made me curious about the quality of the restaurant. Apparently, the hotel remodel was not going to include it in their new design. We turned our misfortune into joy after eating at Lulu’s on the beach walk instead. It is a really good thing we hadn’t found Lulu’s sooner or we would have had to eat there every day. The second story -bar style seating faced the ocean for a beautiful morning view. Additionally we had a front row seat to watch workers scale the palm trees for their regular trimming. It may sound annoying but it was actually really cool to watch the guys shimmy up the tree trunk, no ladders, and just start chopping older palm fronds and heavy coconuts out of the tree tops.

Our afternoon consisted of more time at the beach and one last walk through the international market place for all of our must haves souvenirs. Then we spent some time sorting and packing up in our room. I wondered if we would be able to fit it all in to take back home. It’s a good thing for me that Dusty is a superb packer and made it all fit with room to spare. So what did I want to do? Well fill it up of course! I kept myself in check though, adding a few last minute items like a calendar and photo album. For dinner we walked to Cheeseburger in Paradise. It was one of the biggest cheeseburgers I have ever eaten and we found a funny t-shirt to take home to my dad that said “Shut-up and eat your burger!” on the back. I also required one last stop at Yogurt Land; (I spared you the knowledge of how many other times we stopped in during our trip) I truly love pineapple yogurt!

Wednesday was our day to fly home. We had such a great time and nearly perfect weather, it made me want to stay forever. I was so sad that our vacation was over. I teased Dusty that I was going to let him fly home alone and I would just stay awhile. As I was joking about that we watched the news and heard a storm was coming that would be bringing heavy to torrential rain and flash floods. If it was going to be rainy I figured I might as well be back in Spokane with Dusty and the Moose pup. From there our trip home went well including our flight and when we landed back in Spokane we were not greeted with any rain at all! Instead we had hail and snow! Welcome home.

Living in Each Moment

To be honest, I often forget to enjoy each day as it has been given.

This realization came when I was counting down the days until our upcoming Hawaii trip, 16 day in case you were now wondering. I am so excited to get to go on vacation that sometimes I wish it would get here faster. In this wishing things would get here faster, I forget to look at all the great things that are going on right now. I am all for having things to look forward to, that is not what I am critiquing about myself. Rather I am trying to remind myself that the journey should be just as important as the destination. It is good and healthy to be mindful of the future; it helps us to keep making forward progress in life. Yet I am realizing it is also important not to get stuck thinking about things that will come and forget where we are at right now.

I also know that it is a slippery slope to start wishing life away. I noticed that I will often start thinking about the even the little fun events that are coming up, soon my mind wanders to upcoming seasons of the year, then I start thinking about plans we are working on for a house, which lead to thinking about a future career or family and before I know it I am wishing I could see the path for the next five years all laid out on a neat tidy map in front of me. I think even if that was possible, I wouldn’t want it - despite my wishing for it at times. That is because when I think back to five years ago, I see how many things in my life have changed or turned out in amazing ways I could never have believed possible. I know that if I was given a look at my future, it wouldn’t look the way I expect it to and really that’s not what is important anyway since it is often the journey that shapes our lives more than where we end up. This is a very tough concept for a planner like me to wrap my brain around. It is so easy for me to think of things in the future and start wishing for them then that becomes a goal and eventually a precise outline of where I want my life to go.

You may be thinking, “So what. There is nothing wrong with that?” and while I agree, If there is one thing I have learned about my life it’s that the more you try to plan, the fewer things go the way I expect. Lately I have found myself making plans for a year or more down the road that aren’t always founded on very sturdy ground. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad plans, just that I don’t have enough info about where I will be in that time until it gets closer. Life can change so fast, you can’t always have a specific plan and occasionally you just have to act. I need to remember sometimes it is ok not to have all the plans for life and just see what happens on the journey.

I am trying to be more “present” in each day and think about how I can enjoy and make that day better rather than just thinking about what is coming up. So in an effort to look at each day as a part of the journey here is a list of the blessings I’ve seen in my life lately:

- We had a beautiful Saturday morning, almost warm even, and Dusty had time to go on a run with me. It was more fun after than during for sure.

- The seed order for our garden arrived and we can start planting as soon as the mud dries a bit.

- The daffodil bulbs we planted last fall are finally popping up. I love daffodils! 

- My Moosey puppy and her insatiable desire to run and play fetch helps “force” me to spend time outside. She is obcessed with sticks!

- Our great friends come over or invite us to spend time playing games and eating dinners together.

- I can get in touch with my inner fish since I have had sub free Fridays to go swimming with the girls and their kiddos.

- Report Cards for my 5th graders are nearly done and we can get back to our regular schedule, sans tons of assessments.

- There is a thick crop of Snow Bells blooming to brighten up the entrance to our tin box.

- My Dusty is the most amazing man I could have dreamed of and supports me in every way imaginable.

Friends

Dusty and I are so thankful to have such amazing friends in our life, both new and old!

 A few weeks ago I had a three day weekend. It was wonderful to have a little more time to catch up with some of our out of town friends. We had planned to visit Chris and Carla at their house in the Tri-Cities but they were actually headed North to go skiing for the weekend in Canada. This means we got to start our “parade of friends” on Thursday when they stayed with us in Spokane.

Friday I had school and Dusty spent the morning helping move some of the bigger items to Craig and Michelle’s new house! After school Friday Dusty and I packed our bags and hit to road on our way to see our friends CJ and Libby in Pasco. We went out to a great dinner, played games and enjoyed relaxing at their house for the night. In the morning Dusty and CJ went and played disc golf while Libby and I visited and caught up on each other’s life.

In the early afternoon we moved west to Prosser to visit Grant, Andrea and their new little one, Noah. Noah was very sleepy while we were there. It was fun to watch him make little tiny faces and hear about life as parents from Grant and Andrea. We left Prosser with perfect timing to have a gorgeous sunset as our backdrop for our return trip to Spokane.

Sunday and Monday we went to Craig and Michelle’s new house to help them get settled in. I enjoyed helping Michelle organize and decorate their awesome new house. I was so amazed how perfectly all their furniture and decorations fit in their new house. It definitely is the perfect house for them and we are so happy that they finally found “the one” after looking for over a year… even if it is ALL THE WAY out in Liberty Lake.

Sunday we also went to a birthday party for Sami and Alan’s little boys. It was at a gymnastics facility so the kids there all were having a great time going crazy on the toys. The gym had tubes, slides (like McDonalds) and a bunch of other gymnastics specific equipment. Including a giant pit filled with foam. I seriously wished I was a little kid again so I could have my birthday there; it looked like so much fun. Dusty was excited to have an appropriate excuse to buy some cute little tractor toys for the boys gift, and I think the boys were just as excited to get them.

Overall the weekend ended up being much busier than we originally thought it would be for us. Nonetheless, it still seemed very refreshing as our hearts were fed by getting to see so many of the important people in our life. We are so thankful for all the great people we have in our life!