Camp

Cub scout camp for Gunner and Vacation Bible School for Tess and Scottie have come and gone and they were wonderful. The girls couldn't resist the "rockin" approach to church music at VBS compared to the very reverent singing at our church on Sundays. The melodies of all the songs are still kicking around all of our heads and every once and a while someone will shout a "Fear Not!" for no reason. VBS is at a local Methodist church that my friend works for and they are so kind and the program is so good that we do it every year.

Eventually I'm sure we'll have to address some of the fundamental differences in the two church's doctrines but for a 4 and 6 year old VBS means singing, crafts and a delicious snack with friends every day for a week!

Cub camp is a lot the same only with A LOT more dirt and chance for serious injury. This was my first time to work at camp and I loved it. I don't get much time with just Gunner (and 100's of other dirty 8-10 year old boys) so we had a great time. We got to make a catapult out of nails, 2x2s and rubber bands. Now had a mom conducted this activity she'd have included a bag of mini marshmallows but since dad's were running it the boys made due with rocks and used each other for targets. When I inquired, at what I considered to be the ultimate source for all things "scout," about the possibility of getting the tote-n-chip card I had coveted of my brothers my entire life, I was told it was basically an out dated, rarely done part of scouts. Out dated!? Don't we still make the boys pretend their leaders are a wolf called Akeyla!? Even without the tote-n-chip I think Gunner loved cub camp and looks forward to next year, again, snacks, crafts and friends, the kid triple threat. (Its called the Totemanship)

In other news we are slowly running out of floor to replace and hope that a good carpet cleaning will keep us from having to do more. With the help of Rebecca and Bethany (thank you so much!) I managed to rip up the floor in the kitchen so Joe could almost permanently disfigure himself putting in more laminate. As we have been working a lot on our house lately we have "names" for some of our oft used tools, for instance, the greatest tool ever, the grout master and the tool of death. Joe invented the last one to save money by not renting the correct and safe tool from Home Depot. He used it to cut the backer board from around our kitchen cabinets. Imagine having a whirling blade centimetres from your face while you work in the tiny five inch overhang between your cabinet and the floor.

As always with Joe he finished the project in record time, everything looks perfect and he still has a face.

What could be better than 70 degrees, sunny, and a pile of food on your belly?

While I finished painting the kitchen and putting everything back where it belonged, Joe and the girls took a much deserved trip to Lake Wilderness.

This is shot with a 300mm lens. (I like to give them the alone feeling so they make safe decisions)

Ahhhh . . . Summer!

Yahoo the nice weather is finally here and all the goodies that come with it! Our family has literally hit the deck running with fun summer activities. I guess the season really began when we went on our family camp out/reunion in Idaho a few weeks ago.This is Joe's Grandma Inez Zollinger who is 90 years old and the reason for the reunion. Tess is looking at the Loft and wondering why Betsy gets to play instead of posing for this boring old picture.

But since that entailed camping in the rain and having multiple kids throw up in the tent we aren't counting that. (It's called Herpangina -thanks for the tip Lisa- including blisters on the tonsils, fever and vomiting and I have a sneaking suspicion it has to do with catching fish in the sheep pond, handling them and then, with the power out, not being able to wash hands before lunch, good times . . .) We did however LOVE getting to see all of Joe's brothers, sisters and Dad. Gunner was in heaven surrounded by hordes of fun male cousins. One night I eavesdropped on he and two of his cousins sleep-over in the neighboring tent. I heard a few "she's hot" comments and the usual number of "retards" and "dudes."



This last week has been packed with good times and not the ulcerated tonsil kind. We picked and ate our fill of Rainier cherries at the neighbor's and with the shy Seattle sun shining a bit more each day we took some friends up on an invite to a $10/person day at Wild Waves, the local theme/water park. Everyone had a terrific time and came home with a nice "red" tan (we call it that so Gunner will quit worrying about skin cancer at age nine but Stevo, you should know that that "pink chicken" mom and dad were always feeding you was cooked Salmon.) The before and after "Tan" Read: SunburnGunner, again in heaven with boys to play with, took off with a pair of swim trunks and an inter tube not to be seen again. I did hang out in "Hooks Lagoon" for wee swashbucklers longer than I would have liked but the company was good and I got my chance at two of the hydro tubes. What is fun about getting water shot into your nose at high speeds only to plunge into an ice cold pool? I don't know but it just is. A good friend actually had her top shoot off clear up to her neck and endured the cat calls of the nearby teenage boys without regret because it is just that fun. Even Betsy liked all the rides they would let her on and if we put her in a pair of platforms she'll enjoy even more next time. The scrambler proved to be the hands down winner in the 6-10 year old boy category. We lost these three boys at one point and I eventually found them here.
As if all that wasn't fun enough we decided to hit the Zoo on Friday. Perhaps we should have spread that out a bit since the fun of Wild Waves is nothing like the smelly, hot, fun you have watching animals do their business through glass. I'm not sure what possessed us to go to Seattle at 1:30pm with no snacks but we did. Only to arrive and find we'd forgotten our membership cards. I'm not sure how to explain the parental hypocrisy of sneaking in through the exit of the zoo with a large crowd of foreign exchange students, eating the pickles and sugar packets left out at the various zoo refreshment stands for lunch, and foraging for berries near the flamingo exhibit but I'm sure I'll come up with something. We made do with the two packs of Sugar in the Raw by periodically giving a whiny child a hit like so many stinky penguins. And when your child will eat relish pickles meant for zoo hot dogs you can be certain their ravenous hunger is genuine. Gunner got extra marks for the day by finding five overripe "thimble berries" hidden in the Zoomazium backyard. And yes we are too cheap to buy food at the zoo and it wouldn't have made much difference since our credit cards were likely in the same place as our zoo passes. Starvation and deceit at the zoo isn't the heady wild fun you have on a water slide but fun all the same.

To put the finishing touches on the week we blew up the cul-de-sac of a nearby neighborhood with what appeared to be hundreds of dollars worth of terrific fireworks and good friends. Each of the kids got a chance to burn themselves and their neighbor with a high-powered sparkler bartered for at the "Res." Thanks to Mike, Sean and Brian for a terrific show. As if the week wasn't fun enough we threw in a reunion BBQ with old friends and finished our baseboards and Tile. Can it get better you ask, you'll just have to wait and see what the Ellsworths pull next . . .

Happy 9th Gunner

Gunner's Birthday has arrived again. He just gets better every year. In keeping with tradition we decided to try an interview with him to get some things down for posterity and posterity might be disappointed by this . . .

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do now days?

Gunner: So what are you doing a survey?

M: Yes birthday nard.

G: Ummmmm, I like to play video games, I like to play outside yeah, and I'm good at volleyball now.

M: What do you think your ninth year has in store for you?

G: I can, I can . . . get out of a booster!

M: Anything else, perhaps something more exciting?

G: I don't know, there are no movies that are like PG -9!

M: What do you think about Obama?

G: I don't want to offend the President just because he's democrapic.

---at this point Gunner and I, who have VERY similar senses of humor are both wiping happy tears from our eyes at his hilarious new witticism.---

M: So you don't like Obama?

G: No I don't.

M: How are you going to pay for your college?

G: You're going to pay for it!

Joe: (from the kitchen) WRONG ANSWER! Didn't you say you're going to play basketball?

G: Silence

J: Who's better looking you or me now? You can be honest. . .

G: OK then me, I'm better looking!

M: Why?

G: Because I look better.

J: You're short, no one likes short dudes.

G: I'm going to be tall someday.

J: How's that, you don't even eat vegetables?

--and so on and so on until the interview completely derails and Gunner accuses Joe of only having room in his heart for meat and photography.--

Gunner is a terrific child. He is amazingly obedient and smart but just gets funnier every day. He even made his own birthday pie since he despises cake complete with a lattice crust and three types of berries. It was delicious!

Every year it seems one of his best friends is out of town for his party so we moved it up this year and have attached a little video footage of the festivities. At one point one boy got hit in the head with a bat and someone else skidded on their palms and knees across the wall ball court and I think they all still had a terrific time.

A little Steal-the-Bacon action here. This picture epitomizes the general tone of the Birthday Party.

I know after the parents of the attendees see this video their children won't be allowed to another party but it was worth it. Unfortunately the best footage was too big to fit on the blog so we only get this small blip toward the end of the game but imagine 5 nine year old boys running around hitting each other with newspaper. (My sides still hurt from the hilarious laughter.) Despite how it seems in the footage everyone had a good time celebrating the terrific guy we call Gunner. Happy Birthday to you!

P.S. Gunner even chose the first song on the playlist to go along with his birthday post because he is, "a big boy." At that comment we both burst into laughter. I told him you can't be a big boy with that many duck tales in your hair. He promptly did a head spin to the music to smooth them out.

Daddy Daughter 2009

This years Daddy Daughter campout was at Ensign Ranch. The girls have looked forward to this for a long time so I couldn't tell them NO even though we had just gotten back from a campout where Scottie woke up barfing and I was a little sleep deprived. The drive up was ominous with dark clouds and pouring down rain, but once we got to the other side of the mountain the weather cleared up and we had sunshine.

We found the perfect secluded spot to put our huge tent. I now love that tent. It weighs 50 lbs. but it is nice and big and water proof.

We had a great nights sleep and after Tess went to the bathroom at 5:45 AM she went back to sleep until 8:00AM.

And this is why; How could anybody hate camping? That was the coziest you could possibly get. The girls and I could have stayed up there for a week if we had had enough food.
Tess got into the campfire songs but Scottie was off messing around so I couldn't get pictures of her. She likes mischief and breaking stuff so camping is perfect for her. Also, the burning marshmallows and eating them was a big hit with Scottie the more scorched the better. Tess preferred the melted mallows in her smores.
Of course the worst part was the toilets but, the girls enjoyed using them and loved to laugh and fake gag at how stinky they were. I hope the wet spots on Scotties pants didn't come from the Port-O-Crapper.

Scottie also has no fear of creepys or crawlies and usually is the first to kill them. Tess and Gunner would never kill a bug and are sad when Scottie does it. The next morning we played kick ball, steal-the-bacon, and duck-duck-goose and then slid down the water slides. Tess did the slide once and the 60 degree, 30 mph winds got the best of her. She was more interested in how cool it was that she had shoes that were made to go in water!! Scottie and I slid down 6 times and then even her bones had goosebumps. We dried off, cleaned up camp, and headed to rock climbing.

Rock Climbing

After the Daddy daughter we went up the Iron Horse trail to do some rock climbing. Jeff was cool enough to provide all the gear including kid harnesses and kid rock climbing shoes.

I thought for sure Scottie would be afraid to climb but she was rearing to go up and climbed like a spider. As you can see the belay rope is taught which helped her a little but it was mostly to make sure she didn't fall far if she slipped. She even learned to repel without any real direction from us.

Tess was super excited and Scottie did so well that I didn't really give her a pep talk or prepare her at all. Tess flew up the rock until this point where she slipped and started to feel the pressure of being up 30 feet. She had a bit of a break down and I had to go up and help her repel down.
In the end she recovered and was able to hang on the rope. Hopefully she will get over it and come climbing with me in the future.

Happy Father's Day

Joe and I wanted to wish our Dad's Happy Father's day with the best gifts we have, our kids! I think both Grandpa Ellsworth and Grandpa Smith would have enjoyed watching the rehearsals more than the actual footage, it was wild but in the end we all wanted to wish you both a Happy Father's day.

I am so grateful for my own father who taught me how to do some of my favorite things, gardening, athletics and scripture study and for my Father in-law for welcoming me so lovingly at the first and continuing to love and welcome me now.

Beam me up Kirk! Did I say Kirk?! I meant Scotty.

It's no secret that I and finally Joe want to move to a more appropriately sized home for our family. (I know all you who grew up in a 3 bedroom house with a family of 16 while walking three miles in the snow to school . . uphill, are thinking less of me now.) I've been looking for years and can probably tell you something about every house that has sold in King County in the last 20 months. But the last two weeks we actually did something proactive! The floors and baseboards. While Joe was at the Father and Son camp out I decided to move all the furniture out of the family room and take off to see my Brother in Portland.

Look at all those generations! Count 'em four yes FOUR generations at the BBQ. Thanks Mariss and Stevo the dogs were delicious!

I figured Joe could get a big start on the project during the day I was gone. You know what it's like when you plan on spending a few hours at a family BBQ but then the lemonade starts to flow and the hot dogs are Hebrew nationals. All of a sudden you've sent your 2nd and 3rd born to grandma and grandpas, left you baby with your sister in law and you find yourself holding a Jones soda in one hand, smuggled Junior mints in the other, sitting by your brother and getting choked up during the opening minutes of the new Star Trek movie.

Ahhhh, shirking responsibility makes for great times. So what was supposed to be a one day BBQ with family turned into a Memorial Weekend stay at the Grandparents while Joe and Gunner slaved away on the floors. For any who have not had the pleasure of seeing 25 year old sub floor, put your sandwich down and imagine the accumulated bodily fluids, hair and dust of two and a half decades and three families. Yikes! Now, pick your sandwich up (hope you didn't set it on the sub floor) and imagine how Wonderful the new floors and baseboards look! Why don't we do these little projects sooner! Joe did a fabulous job. Yes, That's my Seven foot socks-and-sandals stud!The Hallway, which I was back in time to help with, was very tricky. And we still have a lot more to do but it is nice to be one step closer to being able to put the house on the market.


Meanwhile at the Grandparents . . .

Grandpa regaling Scottie with a tale of shooting a raccoon out of a tree. Love all the detail! She can dream sweet about that tonight.
These are the clothes we fished out of grandma's drawers and dress up bin to go to church. Not too bad I'd say.

Our stay in Eugene was delightful and the hospitality was unparalleled. We did have to do quite a bit of laundry since we had only the clothes on our backs. But we more than compensated for that with great food and a lazy weekend. It is so nice to have a terrific place to stay whenever we need to. My mom and dad always make it fun, thanks for putting us up on short, actually no notice. Tess decided to touch the electric fence. She'd been warned but you know how those heedings go over with four year olds. Ahh the River. Endless hours of dirty fun just waiting to be had. Riding to the river in the back of Grandpa's truck can be a little frightening but mostly terrifically xhilirating.

A stay at the grandparents isn't complete without a ride on the tractor.