Washoe Lake

Back when it was relatively warm we took an outing to Washoe Lake State Park to play in some sand. It was a cool little spot, we played, slid down the dunes, watched hang gliders jump off a nearby mountain and tried not to let Lou know we were close to a lake. Unfortunately Lou can smell water a mile away; he kept walking in the direction of the water despite the fact that he couldn't see it. When he did finally manage to get a glimpse of the lake some 80 meters away it was all over. We fought him the rest of the trip. Might have to re-think my plan of spending every day of the summer at Tahoe.

Slidy Pants

Ari's almost wore out his snow pants, and unfortunately it hasn't been in the name of snow sports. He loves to put on his "slidy pants" and take a ride down the stairs. Isaac loves to watch, and sometimes tries to join in, FORTUNATELY he just can't figure out how on earth Ari gets going that fast. Yet.

Did I Mention Joe Had a Birthday?

Instead of cake we made mango sticky rice. Ari, despite that fact that he doesn't like cake, was pretty disappointed. Apparently you just can't have a birthday without a cake. Poor Ari, gets his world rocked yet again.

You Can't Say I Didn't Try

Yes, another failure in the child group shot.

Adventures in Snow Hiking

We've gone out hiking with the sled a few times this winter, you know, back when it showed for those few weeks in January. When we sled hike we typically pick a trail where we can go up a mile or two and sled down. The first hike of the season we hiked up and sledded down as usual, but towards the end Isaac fell out and was mad so I decided to let Ari sled down a hill on his own. Now, you must understand that we were at Galena Park, on New Years Day. The hills near the parking lot at this place were PACKED with sledding rednecks. So here come Ari and I down the trail and as we get closer to the hub of rednecks I notice Ari getting more speed than I had anticipated, then I looked ahead and noticed him heading in the direction of a large bush on the edge of a creek instead of the trail. I sprang into action. I ran as fast as I could after the sled and when I saw that I wasn't going to make it I jumped as far as I could, threw my hands out in the air and landed sprawled out just in back of Ari, my fingers gripping the edge of the sled. Ari stopped about an inch from getting a face full of shrubbery. The rednecks cheered! They waved their Walmart brand snowboards and cigarets in the air, shouted curse words and clapped. It was a beautiful moment. I only wish Joe could have seen it, and better yet could have gotten it on film. I felt like such a redneck letting my kid sled out of control into a gathering of rednecks. It was awesome.

At any rate, that was not the hike pictured here. In the picture I want you to notice the yellow sled (rest her soul). The one that has been in the family baking on top of our shed for years, had been used in summer and winter for a variety of activities and was ever so delicately duct taped together in the back. Sadly, it was on this trip that she died. We hiked up and sledded down as usual, we only had one sled so all 4 of us piled on for the downhill, Ari and Joe facing forward, Isaac and I facing backwards. At some point during the sled down we hit a rock, I felt the rock, then noticed a piece of yellow plastic spinning out behind us. A few feet later I see another spot of yellow and some duck tape lagging behind. I yell to Joe to pull over and Isaac and I get off to fetch our sled parts. We notice a hole, nothing too serious, maybe the size of an adult foot. Ari and Joe continued down the hill, Isaac and I trailing behind picking up pieces of yellow plastic. I should have taken a photo of the sled at the end. Poor thing didn't even make it back to the house, we burried it in the parking lot dumpster after a great final run. R.I.P little sled, fortunately you've already been replaced.

The replacement is DELUX! It's a cargo sled that can seat all of us quite comfortably and the high sides help detour Lou from bailing out. Sure wish it would snow again so we could take the new rig out for another spin.

Sorry this first photo is so big. I just can't work this new blogger photo thing like I use to...

Ari Decides It's Time

Up until November Ari has never been interested in drawing or writing. I'd ask him if he wanted to draw a picture "no". If he wanted to learn to write his name, "no". If he wanted to write letters "no". He was totally uninterested. Then one day we were making Cora a B-Day card and I said "why don't you draw a picture of Cora" knowing that he wouldn't, but I never stop asking. To my surprise he said "ok". Even more shocking is the fact that he sat down and drew something that looked like a person! I was shocked. I almost cried. I couldn't let him send his first drawing of a person!! After much convincing (he thought that if he didn't send the card to Cora she wouldn't get a birthday) we agreed that we would make Cora another card and I would keep this one because it was "special to me." After he drew the photo of Cora he drew one of me. The next day I asked him if he wanted to learn to write his name. He said "ok" and wrote his name with little help from me. The next day we drew trains (with a step by step tutorial via the internet, perhaps he gets his reluctance to draw from me....).

Its fascinating. All this time it's like he just needed to think about it. He still doesn't really like to draw. He comes home from Primary or Preschool with either a a blank paper where a drawing should be or a 3 second scribble mark obviously intended to be just enough to get whoever was asking him to draw off his back. Perhaps he's just waiting, and one of these days he'll suddenly whip out a Noah VanOrman. He does however like to write words, so much more practical than pictures, and much less abstract. Totally fits Ari, letters are after all pretty black and white.

Drawing 1: The first drawing of Cora

Drawing 2: Drawing of Mom. This photo is cropped so that I could fit it on here easier, but in the real thing my arm extends another 4 inches. It must mean something...

Drawing 3: The first train.

Did You Know Point Reyes is a National Park?

Basically here's what happened. Joe and I were sitting around the space heater one evening when Joes says to me "Lindsey, you know what I really want. I want to have a weekend alone with the boys, just me and them for a little male bonding." I was really torn, how could I leave my babies for 4 days and 3 nights! Who would hang on my legs? Who would scream at the door when I was trying to go to the bathroom? Who would demand milk every 5 minutes? I mean, I, I, I would be so...free. But, being the good wife that I am I told Joe I would go deep into the backcountry where no cell phone could reach me so that he and the boys could have the bonding time they needed. Pretty sure I deserve a reward or something.

Ok fine, I needed a break and Joe being the Husband of the Year contender that he is was happy to kick me to the curb knowing full well I would come back a much more pleasant person to be around. Which I did. Every mother should have a chance to miss her kids every now and then.

Kim already blogged about the trip here, so if you need details she did a great job. As for me, I will try and let the photos do most of the talking.

Tall trees

Ravenous Beaches

The coolest rope swing ever

Group shot near some tide pools

Pretty sunsets

Costal hiking bliss and fabulous weather

Meditation. Wait, that was the guy with the ponytail next to us...

Empty beaches with waterfalls, which are dangerous at high tide

Crowded beaches with waterfalls which loose their beauty when you insert the word "crowded"

Documenting hooligans

The main event

We planned to keep open lots of time for reading, then we started hiking and couldn't stop. 25ish miles later I had only read about 25 pages.

Camp #3. I'll admit, my tent is hiding the bathroom and water faucet. Yes, backpacking here is like camping at the ritz, only here it smells more like bathroom, but only if your in campsite #1, which we were.

Hiking back out into the real world

Everyone needs a friend who is willing/able to take a trip at a moments notice. Thanks Kim (insert tears of gratitude here).

My Two Kids.

Aside from serving as Isaac's interpreter Ari keeps pretty close tabs on him, he's VERY protective. Ari will tackle him in parking lots if it looks like he MIGHT go into traffic, scream at him if he looks like he might wander off in a crowd or sit on top of the stairs and cry is Isaac tries to go down the stairs facing forward. Its great having an extra set of eyes, even if those eyes tend to be a bit hypersensitive. He usually tells me when Isaac is doing something naughty, and will only occasionally join Isaac in his mischief. They have been playing together more and more lately, it's wonderful! Sometime they will play for almost 1/2 an hour before I hear from one of them. And usually when I do hear from them it's because Isaac starts to tease Ari. Isn't that suppose to be the other way around?

It's so amazing to watch these two.

Ari.

Ari's growing up. He feeds K-So, folds his own laundry, cleans up after himself and dinner and serves as Isaac's interpreter. He goes to a co-op preschool, the first day he went I came in with him thinking I would end up staying for possibly the whole time. I was only there for a few minutes when Ari politely told me I could leave. The next week when I took him he said I could just drop him off, I don't need to stay at all. WHAT? You don't need me??

There is still very little gray for Ari. There is black and their is white. There is right and there is wrong (to which I'm pretty sure eating food must fall into the "wrong" category...still can't get that kid to eat). Great for character, not so great when kids play with your trains "wrong". Also, it's important to note that this tendency for good behavior does not apply in primary, to which some Sunday's I think they might consider kicking him out.

I love this kid.

And yes. He does own more than this one shirt, he owns at LEAST 4 shirts. Kind-of funny it's in 3/4 of these photos.

Oh Lou.

Isaac is so crazy. He loves to hit. He loves to make messes. He loves to scream. He loves to pull things off shelves. He loves to hang on my leg. He loves to play in the trash. He loves to help me do whatever I'm doing. He loves to make Ari mad, and make him laugh. He's crazy. He's funny. He refuses to smile for photos, your lucky when you can get a shot of him looking at you. I love this little guy, even if he is a miniature cyclone.