My Golden Birthday!

Even though my birthday isn't until Tuesday, Mike planned an amazing 3 day weekend backpacking trip.

We started out by dropping the kids off at the McOmber's for a day and then they went off to Spencer & Kathie's... Thank goodness for wonderful family! After that, we caught the midnight ferry and headed to Port Angeles for the night.

The next morning we went to the visitors center in Port Angeles and asked the woman working there a very common question, "If you only had enough time to do one thing in the city what would you do?" She replied, "Well, there's really not much to do around here." Let's think about this...She's a woman, who works at the visitor's center. Isn't it her job to tell visitors like us how wonderful their city is? hmmmm.

Amazingly, we found interesting things to do without any suggestions from the visitor center. But we seemed to find ourselves in a very dangerous predicament along the waterfront trail. A very large octopus grabbed me and tried to devour me! Mike saw what was happening and ran to my rescue. He is my hero. I'm fine now.

From Port Angeles, we drove a couple of hours from there to the Ozette trail head and started our hike. It was POURING down rain for the entire 3 miles in. Because of this, my practical husband decided that in order for the contents of our pack to stay dry, we needed to look like the junk lady on labrynth.

At least we look happy even with enormous humps on our backs.

It was a beautiful place to camp and the rain stopped in time for the sunset!

Mike did all the extra work like setting up the tent and cooking. It was a special treat to be waited upon.

We woke up the next morning and when I came out of the tent I saw about 50 bald eagles flying close to our campsite. We decided to hike over to the eagles after a delicious helping of peaches n' cream instant oatmeal. We layed in the grass losing track of time and happily watching them for awhile and then... it started to hail. We saw a shelter and ran for it. We went inside and were suprised to find that it was full of whale bones. We discovered that it was a memorial for the local tribe. The whale bones are a tribute to their ancestors since the whale is their totem. Later on in the trip we also saw petroglyphs from pre-colonial times. (in the picture where we look like the junk lady).

We had lots of fun adventures exploring and I am embarrassed to say that at one point I slipped on some wet driftwood and fell upside down in the middle of a big stack of driftwood. My pack was so heavy that I couldn't even get up and needed help. Yes, I am clumsy at times. By the end we camped in two different locations and hiked about 12 miles.

It was an amazing weekend full of relaxation, amazement, and adventure! Here are some other random pictures that might be of interest.

Really! My kids are Scientists.

What a relief. My kids aren't messy or destructive... they are scientists! If you have any question about this new fact, I have proof. In an article written by The American Chemical Society it says, "Scientists ask questions and try to answer them. They experiement to see if their ideas work."

How does this apply to my children do you ask?


Scenario #1

After watching an episode of scooby doo, Max comes to a realization of ghosts. He thinks that there is a ghost in the house and he came for a visit because he needed a drink of water. If he gives the ghost a drink of water than he can go home.

Scenario #2

I walk into the kitchen to find 3 1/2 dozen of eggs smashed all over the floor. Not understanding why on earth they would do this I ask them very upset, "why would you make such a big mess!" Max sheepishly says, "I thought it would make a train track." Maybe he figured since eggs make pancakes, omlets, cookies, etc... it could make a longer track for his train set? He wouldn't know until he tried it.

Scenario #3

Kaitlyn is the artist out of the two. she gets into the fridge, retrievs the butter, and smears it all over the window in her bedroom; in the same incident she colors all over everything with a marker. Maybe for her, she's a baby genius... she's writing secret formulas in code that will unlock the power of cold fusion.

O.K. maybe #3 is a stretch, but still, it's possible she's trying to discover a new idea. They have a question and experiment for their answer. All I know is that I'm hopeful for a benefit out of their curiosity. Maybe they will end up doing great things because they have so many questions and the energy to discover the answers to them!

I love Gumdrops!

Why gumdrops? there a few explanations for this name, but there are two main reasons for this. The first is that I call Max and Kaitlyn My Gumdrops. Their big round faces (and bellies) along with the fun colors they wear cause them to look just like gumdrops!

The second reason is that gumdrops are like the blessings in my family's life. Small and sweet... Sometimes we enjoy them one at a time, savoring the one small moment of sweetness in our day. At other times it's a whole bagful coming our way and are completely overtaken with goodness that we just want to share it with everyone.

We all have the good, the bad, and well, the ugly in our lives. How refreshing is it to be able to find the sugar coated, colorful, flavorful, sweet morsels of confection that are hiding all around us. It's almost like a treasure hunt and the rewards are better than gold.

So, my life is a Gumdrop Haven full of love, my family, with those that give me a hand when I'm struggling, blessings from the Lord, and the kindness of those around me.

So there you have it... I finally jumped on the blog band wagon. To all those friends out there who continued to say, "you need to start a blog!". I reply with thanks for the peer pressure. This is going to be fun!