A thirty-mile hike turns into a ten-mile camping trip

I hooked up with my buddy Joe for our annual hiking trip.  He had a plan that would take us up to Remmel Mountain, near the Canadian border north of Winthrop.  The plan was for a three day trip with the second day being the exhausting one where we hike to camp, then summit the mountain, and back to camp.

We left early on Friday so we could make the 4-5 hour trip to Winthrop, check in with the ranger station, and make our way to the trail head at Thirty Mile (which oddly enough is thirty miles north of Winthrop).  We hiked in about five miles through the devastation of the forest fires from previous years and found a great flat spot for a campground (obviously other people had used it many times before since there was also a fire pit).  Got our camp set up and had dinner under the stars.  It’s always amazing how beautiful the night sky is so far out from the big cities, when you can actually see the Milky Way.

The five miles we hiked was a bit much for Joe’s ankle, which he’d hurt earlier in the season.  He wasn’t sure how it was going to hold up, but we’d check it out in the morning.  When he got up in the morning and hobbled out of the tent, I had a feeling we weren’t going to make our original goal.  After some breakfast we decided that it would be unwise to push forward, but we’d still do a bit of exploring of the valley we were in before turning back around.  Below are a few of the photos I took on the trip, you can see the rest here.

The typical scenery from our trip.  Lots of burned out trees, and new underbrush alongside the river.

Our campsite after a warm dinner in our bellies.

The view up the hill from our campsite.

During our exploration we crossed over the river on the slick rocks, luckily the hiking poles really help.

Further upstream in our exploration of the valley, past the burned out forest and into the green.

On our way back out, I noticed this tree which apparently burned from the inside out.

Samson, I understand your torment

My New Year’s Resolution this year was to cut my hair.  On the 16th of September, 2009 I have completed my resolution.  I had a great hair stylist, Maribel, down at Gene Juarez (yes, I went the professional, and foofy route).  She took great care of me, and taught me how to take care of this new do.  After having my last “real” haircut about 12 years ago, I guess I was due.  When she swept up all the hair, the pile looked like a sleeping dog, it was huge.

Kate and I before the big event.

Jacob and I, afterwards.

Kate lost tooth #4 — the Tooth Fairy email has been sent

Yes, for those of you who weren’t in the know, the Tooth Fairy does many of her communications these days by email. Or at least that’s what we’ve told Kate. When she lost her first tooth, it didn’t fall out until very late at night–like 10:30pm (don’t ask why Kate was still awake, we choose to disregard that fact when she stays quietly in her room). We diligently bagged the tooth and put it under her pillow for the first ever Tooth Fairy collection. Unfortunately, Pete and I completely forgot our duties and the next morning Kate comes running into our bedroom hysterically yelling “The Tooth Fairy didn’t come!!!!”

Pete’s and my remorse was immediate, but what could we say? Eerily, almost in unison, Pete and I say the Tooth Fairy’s schedule must have been so busy that she missed our email and we didn’t get added to her pick up route. We promised Kate we’d email the Tooth Fairy that day and that we were sure she’d be able to correct the error that night. Since the Tooth Fairy did follow through the next night, Kate has been convinced that the only way to handle things going forward is to email the Tooth Fairy the minute her tooth falls out.

So the email has been sent for Kate’s 4th tooth that fell out today. She has lost all four of the bottom teeth so far.

Here’s a photo of the kids today to say hi…

Kate’s bunny ears… Knot that is.

Kate is in the process of learning to tie her shoes and today she had her first solo success.

But it was funny as all get out when Gma Roo was questioning the teaching method. Kate mentioned that she’s learned the bunny ears knot that my Aunt Joyce used to teach me to tie my shoes when I was the tender age of 5, and Roo’s incredulous reply was, “The what?” Kate then demonstrated the knot and all was good.

Kate and the Maths, a school update

Pete and I went to Curriculum Night at Kate’s new school. Not sure what to expect, we were at first dismayed by what they’re planning to study for math for first grade.  Counting to 120, less than and greater than, basic addition and subtraction–all things Kate fully mastered last year. Kate also hasn’t had any homework assigned from school yet and she’s been missing her evening activities. So we decided to solve two problems at one go and have Kate do some math work each night before dinner on the math book she’s been working on over the summer.

The long term solution is that Kate will go through math skills assessment testing that will better demonstrate her ability to work on more advanced concepts. Once done, the school will tailor a teaching plan for her math small group. Until then, we will just continue the supplemental math work.

A happy girl working on her maths.

Random Jake-ing, Part Six

Wednesday evening… I had sent the kids into the family room to hang out and watch a little TV while I got dinner ready. Nothing unusual about it, but Jake surprised me when I walked around the corner and found him in his new “bed.”

 

Cute little bugger even had his eyes closed when I first came up on him. I asked him if he’d had a really tiring day at Tim and Lisa’s and he replied, “Tiring. Very sleepy.”

Kate’s got Daddy’s collector gene

A couple of weeks ago I was working on cleaning out the garage.  I was going through some boxes I hadn’t looked in for quite some time, and came across my old coin collection.  Kate happened to be with me when I found them, and was instantly intrigued.  As I was trying to put them away, she pulled out my penny book and started going through it noticing some of the empty spots.  At this point, she really wanted to help me.  She has hundreds of pennies in her piggy bank and was determined to go through them all.  She was persistent in asking, and finally I pulled the books back out, wrote down the list of what was missing, and then let her go through all of her pennies (and the the thousands that I also had) to try and find all the missing ones.  She learned about the different U.S. Mints where the coins come from, how to tell the difference on the coin itself, and then jumped in.  She ended up finding many of the ones that I didn’t have in my collection (I stopped actively searching in the early 80’s).  Once she’d gone through all the coins she wanted to put them into the book.  My books were really old, and so I said I would buy new ones for us.  They came on Thursday, so we spent much of the weekend moving coins from my old books into brand new albums.  While these pennies are not in the best shape, we’ve nearly got a complete collection (from 1909 – 2008).  The collection started with my great grandfather who was pulling them out of circulation and has been handed down through the generations to me, and now Kate is involved (5 generations working on this collection!)

I had been saving the state quarters whenever I got one (blame the collecting gene), and as part of this I wanted something that was Kate’s alone.  I bought a state coin map, and Kate also got to go through all those quarters and currently has 47 of the 50 states!  She has been asking all the family about their coins, and trying to keep finding the ones we’re missing.  At this point, I think everyone has contributed at least a couple coins to the collection.  Here is Kate showing off her quarters.

Candice with Baby

No…not ours  

A month ago our good friends Aaron & Kim had their first baby, Zachary.  After the family came home we took over dinner for the new parents and got to hold Zach and try to remember when Jacob & Kate were that small.  Congratulations to the new parents, you guys will do awesome!

Zachary at 5 days old

Here is Aaron with Kate the day she was born (see she was that small!)

Daddy with Jacob the day we brought him home

Saying goodbye to the Rockhold’s house

Just recently my parents have had to sell Grandma’s house to pay for her continued care.  Given the current economic times and housing market, we weren’t sure how that was going to go.  They did a ton of work to restore/improve/upgrade the house and get it ready for sale, and were pleasantly surprised when it did sell fairly quickly, especially with a bit of a bidding war at the end!  This is the house that my mother grew up in, and the house that my sister and I always stayed at with Grandma & Grandpa, and recently my sister and sister-in-law lived in.

We had a farewell party for the house, and reminisced about all the good times.  There are many things I remember about this house: Benjamin Franklin Dog, Mitzi the Dog, Saturday morning cartoons, the huge candy jar, peanut butter on celery sticks, the narrow stairwells, the art of my sister and I in the stairwell to the basement, the only place we could have tinsel on a Christmas tree, Grandpa’s workshop, rebuilding the front steps with Grandpa, cleaning the aluminum siding, the lilac trees, the camper/fifth wheel/motorhome.

My parents, myself, Candice, my sister, Jacob and Kate on the front steps of the house.

Tricia and Amy striking a pose on the steps.

Kate’s first day of First Grade

Kate’s first day of First Grade took place at her new school today. She is very excited to be back at school and to get to know her new teacher Ms. Ryan. Kate has 17 kids in her new class, she came home knowing 6 names and she can’t wait to learn more. Tomorrow she will have her first afternoon with her new after school care, so we’ll see how much she likes soccer, art class, and homework.   Here’s Kate before we headed in to school.

And again outside the front door.

Kate at her desk and in front of her class calendar.

 

And outside playing some tether ball waiting for the school day to start.

My little girl just keeps growing up!