September 2018

We had the 2nd part of Katie's birthday celebration over Labor Day weekend.

I promised her that she could have a sleepover with her friends in addition to sharing Mikey's birthday pool party.

She baked this cake with the symbol from the 'Wings of Fire' book series on it.

These four have been friends for just about ever.

I'd say most of the way through elementary and now on into middle school.

As with any sleepover, there was not much actual sleep that occured.

Just lots of movie watching, silliness and giggling.

Guess what?

We went back to visit the Ice Caves again.

Mikey....

Katie.....

Ralpher.....

And Huzbend.

The kids wanted him to see the caves.

Because I had an extra hand to help keep an eye on the kids and wrangle the dog, we were able to explore a bit more.

Eventually, we found this giant boulder deposited, no doubt, by an avalanche.

The kids decided that the boulder must be conquered.

It was pretty big.

They needed help to get up it.

"Uh...hey, guys? What about me?" asks Sad Ralph.

He REALLY wanted to either get up there with them or for them to get down.

They decided to get down.
And, thus, the Saga of the Boulder began.

Huzbend was able to shimmy his way down the side of the rock and then jumped to the ground.

Mikey shimmied over the edge, lost his grip and had to have Huzbend catch him.

The problem was Katie.

She was too big to be "helped" down by being caught, and, if she jumped off the top, she definitely would have either twisted or broken an ankle as the ground was just a bunch of loose rocks.

It took just about forever for her to get down.

Huzbend tried to help.

I tried to help.

She wanted to do it her way without any advice or help.

She was in tears at one point.

It was a REALLY big rock, so I "got it" that she was nervous.

But, at some point, I got angry that she wasn't listening or even trying the suggestions we were throwing out to her.

Mikey and Huzbend took Ralph off to explore.

They must've sensed the impending storm....

She eventually made it down with some help from me.

I admit, I had lost all patience. 

There were some hurtful words exchanged.

But, she was down and I thought we could move on.

I was wrong.

Katie was upset.

She was super angry at me for not supporting her while she was on the rock and she was disappointed in herself for not being able to get down.

I gave her a few minutes to get it all out.

 Okay, truth is, I stormed off in frustration.

But, by taking a few minutes away, I realized that she was right.

I got angry at her for "failing".

Angry because she was crying over getting off of a rock.

I just couldn't understand how someone could get that upset or how she couldn't manage to get off the thing.

But, in reality, I was just comparing her to me.

And that wasn't fair.

Katie is NOT me. Not by a long shot.

And, sometimes, that's hard for me to work past.

And, at that moment when I realized how mean I had been to her as she was sitting scared on that rock all because I thought she should be stronger, I was overjoyed that she was NOT me.

She would never do that to anyone.

I walked back over to her.

She was sitting on a much smaller rock and sniffling.

I talked to her about what happened.

I apologized for not keeping my cool. That what I had done was not okay.

I asked her if she wanted to give it another shot.

We could have a do-over.

And, so, we did.

Once she got up and down the rock once more, we were able to move on.

Katie's mood improved and she enjoyed the rest of the visit.

I put on a good face, but, I couldn't move on.
I was ashamed that I'd made her cry.

And, so, this memory is now tainted.

Tainted with sadness that to this day I can't shake.

It's a memory linked to a major parenting failure.

Sigh.

Now we can move on.

The scenery at this place is really stunning.

Here's an ice bridge with a small waterfall running down the rocks behind it.

The surrounding mountains are nothing to shake a stick at either.

Beautiful.

At one point during the hike, there is a melted snow/ice runoff filled river that you have to cross over.

I'll bet you can guess what's gonna happen....

...Yep.

You were right.

The water was frigid.

Even Katie was rocked.

Mikey was determined to actually SWIM in the river.

But, the bottom was very rocky and twiggy.

Eventually, I conceded and let them wear their shoes into the river.

It was another blanket covered ('cause they were naked) ride home for the kids.

Labor Day weekend was over.

Boo.

The kids had one more day before school started.

Well, one more day for Mikey.

He went back on the 5th of September.

Katie didn't go back until the 6th.

We decided to play some mini golf.

I didn't realize it, but this was only the SECOND time in their lives that they had played mini golf.

Crazy.

I'm not quite sure many pars were made.

But, Katie did make "friends" with the local wildlife.

She was stung by a bee.

She took it in stride and we were able to finish up our game.

Mikey only lost his ball into the lake one time.

After our mini golf excursion, we then headed inside to do some bowling.

Mini golf and bowling.

What a combination.

It was a good last day of summer.

It was time for Mikey's first day.

We met at his friend Sienna's house and walked to school.

The big kids would start school the next day, but they came with us to walk the younger kiddos.

Mikey was ready for 4th grade.

 And, they're off! 

In order to keep Katie busy, I agreed that we could make cake balls.

She was super excited.

I'm pretty sure we ate more than the recommended amount of cake and chocolate that day.

Here was the finished product.

Katie was the first to taste test them.

She gave them a BIG thumbs up.

As she would say, "They were SUPER NUMMY!"

And, then, the next day it was Katie's turn for school.

7th grade...here she comes!

School, and all the craziness that comes with it, had begun in earnest.

PTA meetings, volunteering for events and such, after school activities, Curriculum Nights and fundraisers.

Just crazy.

Weekends are the time we can relax and chill.

And play disc golf. 

Yep, disc golf.

You know, that game where you throw frisbees in the woods and try to get them into baskets.

We played our first disc golf game this month.

Huzbend and the kids rode their bikes to a local park where Ralph and I met them via car.

On the way, they met this lovely lady.

Frisbee time.

The kids had to work a bit on their aim.

But they managed.

The best things about disc golf are that we can play as a family, we're outside and Ralph can come with us.

And, no, he does not chase frisbees.

That would be way too retrieverish for him.
He had no interest whatsoever.

Katie attended another sleepover and then enjoyed the Washington State Fair with her friends, while we put Mikey to work mowing the lawn.

Seems fair, doesn't it?

One thing we've never done in Washington.....apple picking.

And what better place to do it, really?

It was time.

First, we picked ourselves some Gala apples.

They're my favorite.

Next we moved on to Honeycrisp.

The apples were GIANT.

Like, as big as Katie's head.

But, not as big as Mikey's head because then that would be HUGE.

In typical Mikey fashion, he wanted to pick and pick and pick until his bag was completely full.

We nearly had to tie the kids hands together to get them to stop picking.

No one needs that many apples!

After a quick stop to visit some chickens....

....and to mess around on a tractor that they used to play on when they were toddlers......

....we paid for our $400 worth of apples.

Okay. So, it wasn't $400. But, it felt like it.

First up on the apple recipe list was Apple Crisp.

"I can't eat this. I'm watching my figure."

Now you see it.......

....now you don't.

It was delicious.

I enjoyed the leftovers for one too many days.

Next on the apple recipe list was homemade slow-cooker cinnamon apple sauce.

I've been promising Mikey for about 3 years now that I would make apple sauce after he did it in his 1st grade class.

He didn't like it.

Katie didn't either.

Huzbend and I ate about 3 pounds worth of cinnamon apple sauce over the next week.

Bowling. AGAIN!

Yes.

Mikey's friend had a costume bowling birthday bash.

Katie was invited to come along.

That was super nice of them.

Mikey rolled out his Link costume once more.

They say you learn new things everyday.

I did not know that Mikey could levitate.

Nuthin' better than bowling alley pizza.

Actually, I can think of quite a few things that are.

But, I'm not 9.

So, a tween, Darth Vader, a cat and Link walk into a bowling alley...

To top off September, Katie attended her first ever Girl Scout encamporee at Camp River Ranch.

We got extremely lucky. It was perfect weather. It was warm and it only rained at night!

She participated in all sorts of fun activities.

She's old enough now to go out in a canoe with no adults.

I was only able to watch the archery.

Boo.

So jealous.

They did a craft - made their own candles - and created this yummy baked apple concoction that was cooked over a fire.

The girls slept in cabins on their own.

Adults got to have their own cabins. 

Although, it didn't make much difference. We could hear just about everything that the kids said due to the fact that the cabins were so close together.

Katie, being an older girl, was tasked with keeping an eye on the youngers and keeping them busy.

She did such a good job.

This little guy was making a HUGE amount of noise in the bottom of a metal garbage can at about 1 in the morning. So much noise that I thought I was going to find a bear.

On our last day at camp, we broke out the pie irons and made stuffed french toast.

Oh my sweet tooth! These were DELICIOUS.

We MUST get pie irons for our family camping trips.

That last afternoon, Katie did some horseback riding.

His name was Ike.

She said it was like riding a giant Ralph.

As you can see, he's more interested in eating than walking.

Just like Ralph.

What was Mikey doing that weekend?
He was hanging with Huzbend.

Because we had taken the car to go camping, they had to find a way to get to the pool for swim lessons.
The pool is about 10 miles away.

They rode their bikes.

After lessons, they stopped for a lunch refuel to power them home.

One last stop before home at Menchie's FroYo place.

Mikey deserved a treat.

Incredible that he could ride there AND back AND swim for about an hour in between.

Awesome!