Out Sailing on the Water

Friday was a beautiful day, warm and windy.. perfect for sailing! We left early and picked up Dave's son and then down the street we picked up his parents. Off we headed to the water. Dave's dad loves to sail, has his own boat but it has not been in the water for a few years and needs a little TLC (which it will be getting over the winter) His dad is having some health issues and one thing we have learned over the years is that it is not a good idea to wait to do things you really want to do and to share them with people who you really love. We have been talking about going sailing with his dad and with john for years... the time was Friday.

The only sail boat I have ever really seen was Steve's ( Dave's dad) his is 25 feet and well.. to me.. it is a sail boat.. that is about all I know. When I booked the charter for Friday I booked it on a 33 foot sail boat.. I figured it would be huge.. like a yacht or something.. well I was totally clueless. It was a lot longer than Steve's.. but the sitting area was not any bigger.. in fact it is smaller.. was a bit of a crowded trip but we all like each other so that was ok.

We ended up powering up to Langley because it was too windy and the captain said we would all end up soaking wet and maybe sea sick.... well we ended up soaking wet anyway but it was still fun. We had a wonderful lunch in Langley at the Braeburn and I loved it. The food was wonderful, the service was great, the building was fun .. We will go back there for sure! There was a street fair going on right outside the windows so we were able to watch people and sit and visit while having lunch.. was a great time. On the way back we were able to sail.. I have to say.. getting the sails up and ready to go was a bit nerve wracking.. both sails were not really ready to go.. they were twisted and it was a bit of a mess.. twice the boom went flying almost knocking people off the boat.. but once they were up and we were on our way it was wonderful. Made some good time on the way back too.. 10.3 knots was the fastest we went.. ( on the way there we only went like 3.5) But it did not seem very fast.. the wind was with us and the water was beautiful, the sun was warm and it was so quiet.

On the way up to Langley Steve was in charge of the tiller (?) I have no clue.. I just know it is not called a wheel.. and in this case it really looks just like a stick so I am not sure. On the way back Dave and John did the raising ( not pulling ) of the sails and that sort of thing.. I am seriously going to have to learn a whole new language here. John and I had not been on a sail boat before and both of us are ready to be on one again ASAP.. we can't wait to get dads all fixed up and maybe even go out for a long weekend in it.

Not only was the sailing wonderful but the very best thing about Friday was the time spent with people I care so much about. So many smiles and hugs and happy memories. It will be a day I will never forget and that I will always treasure. I hope to have a lot more of these days to make memories like this with these people and with the rest of my family and friends too. It is important to remember that we never know what will happen tomorrow and we need to live each day to the fulliest and to share our love and smiles and to care for each other before we are gone.

This picture wraps up the whole day for me. Everyone smiling.. and in one picture! These guys almost never smile.

Camping in the Rain

Went camping last weekend with my sister at the spot she has.. it is one of those camp grounds where you buy a space in it.. that way you always have a place to camp. You can leave your trailer up there year around and there is a club house with a pool and a craft/activity room for the kids and basketball place and a bunch of other stuff.. always stuff for the kids to do.. and they even have a grown up only space.. yay!!

It was pouring rain for a lot of the weekend.. but.. the way they are parked we just pull in at a bit of a angle and then with both our awnings out we can put the fire right outside the awnings and sit under them and have the heat reflected in and it was awesome!

When we got there Friday night it was raining... we sat around the fire and visited.. had some awesome steaks that were cooked on the bbq.. sister covers hers with fried onions and mushrooms and then melts blue cheese on top... I tried some of this.. minus the mushrooms.. and omg.. I will now be eating my steaks this way.. they were So good! If you have a favorite recipe with Blue cheese.. please share it here.

Friday all night it poured... ... attempting to get up in Saturday morning was close to impossible.. it was cold out there... and every time I rolled over it rained harder.. so I stayed in bed until a bit late :) Then the rain stopped so I got up.. everything was still soaking wet and the huge trees were dripping big drips.. but it was nice to just sit and visit around the fire. I love spending time with my sister :)

The rain pretty much held off all day so in the afternoon we were able to all go for a walk with the puppy ( sister has a baby chocolate lab that is so very sweet and too cute ) we explored around the camp ground for awhile and then made it back right before it started raining some more, just in time for dinner :) Tonight it is hamburgers on the grill then smores in the pouring rain.. no way I was going a whole weekend of camping without a smore.. no matter what the weather.

Sunday morning was still a bit wet.. and Mothers day.. so I again slept in and then had a lazy morning with some hot cocoa and computer time. Then up for some visiting and cleaning up campsite so we can get home and get some things done. This weekend was very relaxing and calm... I loved getting to visit with my sister.. it is so special that we get to be friends now and not just sisters. I also loved the time Dave and I just spent together in the motor home, working on projects and visiting together.

A Wonderful Weekend!

Lazy Weekend

Well this weekend was not very productive but it was a nice relaxing weekend and I did get some things done. Friday Dave had to work in the morning so I spent the morning on the beach collecting some really fun treasures, heard it was going to be a really cold day but it was sunny and warm and I ended up wearing my sweatshirt and rain coat tied around my waist on the walk back up.

Saturday Dave and I headed out to check out the hobby shop in town and make our Christmas lists. We also went to lunch and then stopped and did our weekly grocery shopping. I need to remember to shop more the first couple of weeks of November so that I don't have to deal with the stores the week before Thanksgiving.. way too many people in there for me. Since the daughter was out for the night we rented a movie ( Grown ups ) and made some pizza. The movie was ok.. not Wonderful but not Horrible.

Kitty cat (Jackson) enjoying the fireplace today.

Today was a stay home and be lazy day.... my only goal was to find the dinning room table again. When we did the remodel we did our best to think ahead and have a place for everything so that everything could go in it's place. For the most part we have done really good at that. When the house is gets cluttered up it ends up with all of us being a bit stressed out. The biggest problem we have is our "projects" my crafty stuff and Daves models... we do not really have anywhere that is just for that. Dave is really good at keeping all of his stuff in the boxes and just pulling out what he needs. I am horrible. I have two tall book shelves full of different boxes and everything is sorted... the problem is... I like to be able to see everything when I am working on something. As soon as I start on something I end up with every box coming off the shelves and getting spread out. I have my shelves in the boys room, which they only use 4 nights a month and they don't mind sharing.. until I spread things all over the floor and their beds. In a year that room will be ours.. both the kids rooms will be ours.... office and hobby room...woohoooo!

Todays Chore.... Before picture

This is the dinning room table.. under there somewhere... I did get everything put back into the craft room/boys room... and most of that is even back into the right boxes and on the shevles.. almost... will finish that tomorrow.

The table after

Emmy's Sugar Frog

I love frogs... .. used to have a collection.. but.. there are only so many things one can collect. While we were out geocaching we saw this beautiful frog attached to a travel tag so we just had to take it and check it out. Turns out it it is Emmy's sugar frog and has a sweet tooth.. it wants to hop around from cache to cache... having it's photo taken while having a dessert :) When we read that.. we knew we had found the right travel bug (frog) for us to move along.

Last night I decided to make some cookies and I remembered that Emmy's sugar frog was visiting us and I thought he might enjoy making some cookies... from what I had heard I knew he would enjoy eating some cookies. So I gathered up all the supplies on the counter and set him there to watch. Right away he hoped into action and was making sure everything was mixed well.

Then we had to get it all patted down in the pan and nice and even. (yes we ALL washed before helping)

I did make the mistake of opening the chocolate up so it would be ready when the cookies were done baking.. lol came out to find this.

here the cookies are... out of the oven and ready for chocolate... from the look on Frogs face I am not sure I was moving fast enough.

Wouldn't you know it... he went right for the one with chocolate on it.

Emmy's frog also helped make some brownies

And some blue berry muffins while visiting.

We had a lot of fun with this frog and had thought we found the perfect cache to drop it in.. one that belonged to a little girl named Emmy.. but.. we had no luck getting in touch with the owner.. and then we noticed that the cache seemed to not have any activity so we decided to keep looking... found a well maintained cache close to home on the perfect trail for a frog so last night while out hiking/caching with the kids we left it there to continue on it's journey. We look forward to watching and seeing where this special, fun frog will go next :)

~Michelle

recipe for these cookies (in thumb print version) is on my other blog, Coffee, Tea and Recipes. Only difference would be instead of making into little balls.. just spread in a pan and bake until edges are brown.

recipe for the brownies and the muffins can be found in Chelle's Kitchen too :)

Mt St Helen's

This last weekend we went for a road trip.... we headed out really early in the morning... going south... why south? Well we had a travel bug we found, while hiking last weekend, in a geocache. It needed to go south.. When we started looking at places to go that are south of us.. we knew it was going to be a long weekend with lots of things to do.
We wanted to explore Mt St Helens (mt that blew up in 1980's) and saw that on the way up the mountain there were so many caches.... we picked a few that we thought might be fun and headed out. So many things to explore... first stop was the Mt St Helens visitor center.. watched the movie and checked out the exhibits.. gave the kids a chance to learn a little history and find out what it was we would be exploring. We walked a little bit around the silver lake wetland haven trail, right there near the visitor center.. also found our first cache of the trip :)

We found a couple more caches as we headed up highway 504 towards Johnston Ridge Observatory (which we learned is still closed for the season)... we found a couple of tricky caches.. or at least we thought there were.. one was an old telephone receiver with a magnet stuck to it... and another was not so cool in what it was.. an old mint box.. but it had been painted and had thing taped to it so it looked like part of what it was stuck to. We also found our first nano cache this weekend.. wow it was tiny... we did our first earth cache...took our photo with a landmark and answered some questions about the area... it was a lot of fun. We did end up finding a nice cache on highway 503 to leave the travel bug in.. now we will watch to see where it goes *fingers crossed it heads to it's destination* Geo caching is a great way to get out as a family and really learn a lot of history and a lot about the area.

The rest of Saturday was full of beautiful views of the mountains.. and small hikes in the woods to explore things like beautiful lakes.. we went as far up the mountain as we can but will have to head back after may to see the view from the top.. still please with our photos.. were able to get some with just a few clouds.. that is pretty good for Washington. It was nice to watch the kids as they saw how even 30 years after the eruption that you can still very clearly tell.. in places it looks like mars or something from star trek.

We then drove to Vancouver Washington, one because we have a hotel that we like to stay in there.. and two because we all wanted Red Robin for dinner.. well the hotel worked out ok.. but the restaurant was FULL..so we drove around and did not really find anything else we loved.. so we tried a burgerville.. it sucked. Will not eat there ever again.. just plan ick.. and over priced.

Sunday we got up and planned on heading up highway 503 to the south side of St Helens. It was warm and sunny and we decided since we were so close that we would slip over the border into Oregon and drive through Portland ... we all love it there. Dave found a parking spot near the Saturday market (yes they have it on Sunday too) so we got out and spent a little over an hour just walking around seeing the sights and smelling the smells... it was so much fun.. watched some break dancers from Portland City Rockers doing their thing. We then headed back to Washington and to Mt St Helens.

Highway 503 up the mountain is abit more laid back and less touristy than 504. The signs of the eruption are not from the 1980 eruption but from ones many of thousands of years ago... had a picnic lunch at yale park... it was so beautiful.. picnic table right on the water. Then up to the ape caves.... we were not all sure if we would like this or not.. you climb underground in some tunnels that were made from the lava flow a long time ago.. it is very very dark and wet in there.... we LOVED it. We did the bottom hike.. you go in and hike down 3/4 of a mile then hike back up... next time we want to go in and go the other way..do the harder hike up 1.5 miles.. it goes over some rock hills and you have to crawl for some of it and you climb out on a ladder...we will be going back to explore that.. we will be a little better prepared.. some extra lights.. and gloves.. and knee pads.

By the time we done and back to I-5 we had a long drive to get home... we arrived home about midnight and quickly everyone went off to get some sleep before the long Monday started. That is the only problem with adventures.. is reality sets in nice and hard come Monday morning.

Click here to view more photos of our weekend.

~Michelle

Terrifying Teens

I have been looking around and noticing that there are a LOT of sites/groups/clubs for people with toddlers... lots of support on how to get through the terrible twos... I have also noticed.. there is no where near as much help/support for parents of teenagers. I have 5 teenagers...they all used to be toddlers.. and let me tell you... terrible twos are nothing compared to the terrifying teens. I thought I would start writing a bit on my blog about some of the wonderful *cough* things about teenagers. Going to start writing once a week on it and hopefully there can be some discussion in the comments.. support and ideas and comments... I KNOW there are a lot of people out there with teenagers. I have also talked to my daughter and asked if she would be willing to post once in awhile with her thoughts and/or ideas on things.. I am just going to throw this up once a week for awhile and see where it goes.. will base it on the comments I get and if anyone is interested in any of this.

Why I think I will be good at this... I have 5 kids... 4 boys aged 20...19...18... and step son is 15... and my daughter is 16. I think we have covered just about every subject in this house. We have dealt with girlfriends.. boyfriends... sex.. drinking.. drugs... driving... death....sexual molesting... physical abuse... verbal abuse... split families... step moms.. step dads.. half siblings and step siblings...grand parents... extended family....health issues... grades... failing... living with us and not living with us.....we are now dealing with the military too.. pretty much I think we have covered every subject out there...there are a couple we have not had to deal with... does not mean at some point and time we will not.. that is the biggest thing about teenagers... at least for me.. you never know what is around the corner... toddlers will wear you out physically... lots of chasing.. keeping you up at night.. but a teenager.. will break your heart in ways you never dreamed it could be broken.... Seems like even at the times you are the most proud.. your heart will be breaking. Going to do some writing about those type of things.. would love your input. Please leave a comment! I really want to know what you think about this idea... will you get in on the comments and can we get a discussion started?

Michelle

Brians Graduation from Washington Youth Academy

He is graduated and home! His graduation was in Bremerton so it was a long day.. a little over 2 hours there... picked up his stuff from the academy at 7:30 am.. then we all went out to breakfast...then over to the high school for the graduation... we were there right when they opened the door at 9 am so we were able to get pretty good seats...the place filled up fast. They started right at ten.. as with all graduations there were a lot of people doing a lot of speaking and many thank you's.

I did record one speech.. give by Colonel Pettit, it was a very heart felt speech and very touching. You can tell the people who work with these kids do it because they care.. and they want to make a difference.. and they really do. 121 kids... high risk... came to WYA for many different reasons but for many of the kids it was their last chance. There are kids who were getting into crime.. gangs... dropping out of school.. very low grades... horrible attitudes... and yet This man spoke of kids who in 6 months went up 6 full grade levels... one child there lost 92 pounds.. in 6 months... these kids, when given what WYA gave them...were able to work so very hard and to change their lives in 6 months. I will forever be grateful for the differences I see in my son... for the chances they have given him and the things they have taught him. I look forward to watching him use the skills and knowledge he has gained while at WYA to continue making changes in his life and in others. I have always known that Brian can do it.. and WYA showed/taught him that he can.

One of my favorite parts... yes I cried in it.. I cried like a baby through the whole thing.. was when they showed a video of before and after photos... I enjoyed watching the video and seeing how much each person had changed.. not only did they all get short hair.. but you can see in their eyes a different attitude... the best part though was watching and listening to the group of cadets as they watched their own photos and that of their friends... you could tell from the sounds and pointing that there was shock and surprise at who they themselves had been and had become.

Washington Youth Academy... Thank you.. to each and ever person involved. If this sounds like something that might be good for your child.. I highly suggest looking into it.. and I do believe it is offered in other states too. On the main page there is a drop down list of other states so you can find one near you.

Washington Youth Academy

Posted some pictures here Flickr

and some videos here youtube