The Pit

After a full day of driving and touring on Saturday, we were ready for a bit of a rest on Sunday so decided to stay around the house and hang out.  Fortunately, as a bonus, Kelly, Matt and David Payne were able to come down to visit too so we ended up having a mini-Okinawa reunion!

After lunch, the guys decided to finish off the fire pit, so it soon became a group project (I think they really wanted to utilize Matt and David's strength for moving all those blocks!)  This was so wonderful because now every time we sit around the pit, we'll be reminded of our many happy times in Okinawa and the friends who helped us create a new pit at our new home in Washington.

Hmmm...how are we going to do this?

You can see how Mick felt about it.

Does it look right?

Jimmy and Mick in the truck.

See how I'm letting the men do the work!

Emmy and Lydia

Of course we had to have an inaugural fire pit that night.

Eating chili by the fire.

Ahh, warm tootsies, and right in time for the cooler weather!  Thank you all for our new fire pit!

My Birthday

Yes, it was time for another birthday for me on Saturday.  How can time be passing so fast?  I can't believe two years have past since we were in China!

Anyways, this birthday my big present was, of course, the visit of Liz, Don and Lydia.  But for something fun on the actual day, we decided to go to Mt. Rainier.  I thought about going to Mount St. Helen's, until I found out it's three and a half hours away so we opted for Mr. Rainier again.  It seemed like old times when we piled in the van and headed out because our families used to take road trips together all the time in Okinawa.  Of course the new Odyssey is a little fancier than our old Blue Beater, but it's not about the car, it's about the company inside.

About a half hour before you get to Rainier is a beautiful place to stop to have lunch and stretch legs, which is what we did.

Don is obviously used to Texas weather!

After lunch, we headed the rest of the way into Rainier National Park and then through the park to Paradise.  This is the place I brought my mom in August to see the wildflowers and is just a gorgeous location.

These photos were taken on the way up to Paradise:

At the top (well, really only 1/3 of the way up the mountain), the kids refueled before heading out on a short hike.

The Jones and Coats families!

Liz thought the meadows looked like she should be singing "The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music"!  Even though it's only one month after I brought my mom, all the wildflowers were gone.  But it doesn't really matter as this is such an idyllic location.

Pretending we're Julie Andrews

On the way out of the park, we finally caught a glimpse of the summit which had been hiding behind clouds all day.  Awesome!

Surprise!

I found out the other week that Stevie had been conspiring behind my back...but with good reason!  You see, he had secretly been trying to arrange for my friend Liz to come visit for my birthday. 

Liz, Don and Lydia were our most excellent friends that we met/lived next to in Okinawa.  Our families had many crazy fun adventures together and we missed them dearly when they moved back to the US a year before us.  But just because an ocean separated us, and now half the country, doesn't mean our friendship grew apart.  This is one of those cool friendships where the wives, husbands and kids are all best friends.

So when Stevie was arranging for Liz to come, Don threw in his "I want to come too" card and they ended up figuring out a trip for the whole Jones family to see the whole Coats family in Washington.  What an awesome surprise!

Stevie and I picked them up at the airport on Thursday while the kids were in school, but the kids soon got reunited and had fun!

Lydia and Emmy chatting.

Working on a craft together.

Liz and Cannon working on a puzzle (we did this alot in Okinawa).

Ready for bed in a tent (that's Obi under the purple blanket!)

On Friday, while the kids were in school, I took Liz, Don and Lydia to experience a little of Washington - like forests with huge trees and farms with fresh picked produce.  I think Don was a little amazed at how big the trees are and I think Lydia was impressed with the pick your own dahlia farm.

After a morning in nature, we headed to a junk yard.  Yes, a junk yard.  Isn't that on the tops of everyone's site seeing list in Washington?  No, the reason we went to a junk yard is this: back in Okinawa almost every weekend you could find us and our neighbors in the front yard gathered around a very decrepit, yet amazingly functional fire pit.  We made many, many good memories around the firepit.  So Don and Stevie decided we needed one at our new house - or maybe it was Lydia's idea, I can't be sure.  But who ever had the idea, it was a good one. 

So back to the junkyard...Don had seen an idea where you use an old tire rim for the bowl of the firepit and then enclose it with rocks.  Sounded like a good plan to me so we hit the junkyard in search of the perfect one.  After a little rooting around (by Don - Liz, Lydia and I busied ourselves by eating wild blackberries) he found the perfect thing!

More on the firepit on Sunday's post...

Bears

Remember growing up, in school, about twice a year you'd have to practice fire drills and tornado drills?  You know, you'd march out into the parking lot in a single file line until the principal said it was alright to come back inside.  Or the tornado drill where you had to sit in the hall with your head between your knees?  At least those were the drills I had as a kid in the Midwest.

I think my kids had the same kind of drills in Virginia.  When we moved to Okinawa, I thought it was interesting that the kids didn't have the tornado drill, but earthquake drills instead.  You know, everyone under the tables until the earth stopped moving.

And of course, as a sign of the times, the kids have "lockdown" drills for when there is a madman running around wielding a gun.  I think I'd rather have an earthquake.

But when the kids came home this week and told me about their drills I had to laugh for in addition to the earthquake, fire and standard lockdown drills, they also had to practice for a "modified lockdown" - ie. the Bear Drill.  Yes, folks, the kind of place we now live in has the potential for a stray bear to walk through the playground and when that happens the kids are not aloud to leave their building.  I guess that's fine if you're in the main building, but I pity the ones stuck in the portables!

And just to reinforce that we now live in bear country, today the kids and I were taking a walk in a local park when I noticed this brochure on the information board...

I probably should have kept walking and not pointed it out to the kids because they worried throughout the whole walk that we were going to get attacked by a black bear (and to be honest, so was I!)  I stopped to read the brochure because I truly wondered what you are supposed to do if you round the bend and come face to face with an oversized, mad teddy bear.  You know what they suggest to do?  Stay calm.  Great, I'll try that.  Also avoid direct eye contact, which might be difficult for my border collie who relies on staring to do his job.

They also say to "identify yourself as a human by standing up, waving your hands above your head and talking".  Ha!  Is that what identifies us as human?

It goes on to say, "Because black bears can reach speeds of up to 30 mph, running away is not a wise decision."  OK, I know I can't outdo 30 mph so I'll be standing still.

Finally, it says that if the bear decides you would make a nice meal, your best option is to "aggressively fight back" - yep, figured that out already.  But as a last resort, the brochure advises you to curl in a ball or lie flat on your stomach and play dead (but don't move or look up until you're sure the bear has left!)

After considering these options, I think I might make a trip tomorrow to Cabella's for some bear spray.

Blackberries

I've written before about all the farmer's markets and abundant fresh fruits and vegetables available here in Washington, but one thing I didn't know about were the plethora of wild blackberry bushes.  They are everywhere!  To the point that people consider them a nuisance and have to pay big bucks for someone to come and rid their property of blackberry bushes.  Maybe in a few years I'll feel this way, but for now I'm in love with the idea of so many free, yummy blackberries around.

Cannon, London and Emmy are also liking the bushes - they really seem to like picking the fruit (unfortunately not eating it) and so I have been faced with oodles and oodles of blackberries to use.  So far I've frozen a bunch, made 3 blackberry pies, a batch of blackberry apple jam and a batch of blackberry rhubarb jam.  I'm toying with the idea of making blackberry wine...  Look out, you may be getting homemade blackberry products for Christmas this year!

Another container of blackberries!

Emmy turns 6

I can't believe it, but Emmy is growing up!  I keep threatening to put a heavy book on her head to make her stop, but she won't wear it.  Yes, yesterday was her 6th birthday - Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!!

Since she hasn't really had the chance to make many friends yet (just four days in school), we didn't have a party, but that doesn't mean she didn't have a special day.  First of all, Grammie is here so that made it special, but then we also had all kinds of other treats lined up for her.

The day started with brownies for breakfast.  Yes, I served my kids brownies for breakfast.  Now does that make me the worst mom ever or the coolest mom ever?  Whatever my new title is, I served them because in our house the birthday person gets to choose all meals and Emmy took that literally and requested brownies.

I think brownies for breakfast might make you crazy?

After brownies came presents and the girl got just about everything on her list (which, for a 6 year old, was pretty reasonable).  Tubes of small plastic animals (arctic creatures, sea creatures and horses), a sea creature stuffed animal collection, a small fox stuffed animal she found at the Mt. Rainier gift shop, and a Playmobil horse set.  She also got lots of nice gifts from family - thank you all!

After a little play time with the new toys, we had Emmy's requested lunch, macaroni and cheese, then headed out on her surprise adventure - a visit to Wolf Haven.  Wolf Haven (or Wolf Heaven as Emmy and London called it) is a place I read about shortly after getting here; it's a wolf rescue and breeding facility located about 10 miles south of Olympia.  They offer tours through their facility so you can get up fairly close to the wolves.  They had gray wolves, Mexican wolves and red wolves (and two coyotes).

Afternoon siesta for the Mexican wolf?

It was hard getting good photos through the chain link fence.

One of the wolves was named London!

Emmy and London were thrilled to see the animals and even more thrilled to see the gift shop which had (surprise!) stuffed animal wolves.  If you haven't been around Emmy and London in the last two years, you might not understand that these two are fanatical about their stuffed animals.  The good part is that they play with almost all of their extensive collections.  And Emmy surprised me by using some of her birthday money to buy two small wolves and then promptly giving London one of them to keep.  Warms a momma's heart...

Stevie hanging with Mick in the back of the van.  Stevie decided not to go on the tour when someone "told" the center that we had a dog in the car.  The ticket seller told us they wouldn't be responsible for damages to our car if they had to break into it to rescue a distressed animal.  Mick was by no means distressed but we didn't want to risk having them do it.

We then returned home so we could cook Emmy's requested dinner (lasagna) and put the finishing touches on her cake.  Emmy and London played the whole car ride home with the wolves and the time before dinner and requested extra play time after dinner.  Those two are so great together.

I know, it should have been a wolf, but Emmy requested an orca cake.