The end of summer

Since arriving back home on 24 August, we've been busy enjoying the last days of summer and getting ready for school to start on 5 Sept. Although we had a really good trip to the US - even with all of the sadness and grief that was woven into this time - it has felt great to be back in England. The hardest part has been seeing friends and acquaintences in the village who ask excitedly how our summer was or if we had a great trip to the US and who don't know the sad news about my Dad. So we haven't ventured too far and have mostly hung out with our closest friends this past week or so.

Emma and I took the troops to pick blackberries one day on a big trek which ended at Heaven Farm. When they started complaining about being tired, we busted out the gummy worms...
Here are Sophie & Rhiannon (aka Starsky & Hutch because of their coloring..) on a normal rainyish afternoon, looking after their babies (note that one is in the bottom basket) while Tryfan is in the background fully immersed in his own world of Star Wars Lego figures and the ensuing drama.
Fortunately it was a long weekend with a public holiday Monday, and it felt good to be allowed to have our own space and time to transition back to this timezone.

Olympic Fun

We had so much fun with Rosie, Toby and Coco!
Too bad Ben (the Dad) couldn't be there too but we did our best without him. We went in the hotel swimming pool, ran really fast up and down the hallways, jumped on the beds, had pillow fights, watched cartoons and all the other exciting and joyous things there are to do in a hotel! The kids were turned loose with the camera, and they took these photos - even including the room service lady who kindly delivered a bottle of wine to the room. Rhodri isn't pictured because he was enjoying a rare moment of solitude..
Rosie and I read stories to the kids when it was time to CALM DOWN.
The next day we walked around Olympia and then took a free bus to the Hands On Children's Museum. I caught this private moment between Rhiannon and Toby.
This museum really surpassed my hopes and expectations! It was such
After our exploration and a spot of lunch, we went back to the hotel to swim one last time and check out. Here are Toby, Tryfan, Coco and Rhiannon all bundled up.
Saying goodbye, piling into the minivan to head to the airport.
It was very pleasant flying out of Seattle - highly recommended! One of the best parts was flying right over Mt McGregor and being able to see the upper half of Lake Chelan in the evening sunlight.
We all managed to sleep on the plane for a bit and nobody got into too much trouble or anything. Success! We left Seattle at 7pm on Tuesday night got back to our house in England on Wednesday afternoon.

Pilgrimage to Cabela's

We went downlake on Sunday afternoon and found the rental minivan in the place we left it. Then we drove to Wenatchee to stay with our long lost friends Dave & Shelly at their new house which has a swimming pool! Sadly, Shelly was called out on a fire (she is a backcountry fire fighter who has worked her way to being a Logistics Manager - so proud of her!) and Dave didn't get home from work until 10pm so we mostly had their house to ourself for the evening. We left bright and early Monday morning (after going for a morning swim, of course).

Rhodri has been wanting to go to Cabela's, so we made a special detour to visit this shop near Olympia before our flight back to England on Tuesday night. Here he is with Rhiannon ready to go inside!
We had arranged to meet our old friends Rosie, Toby and Coral. Rhiannon and Toby were baby-friends together until we moved from San Diego to Norway in Oct 2006, and they hadn't seen each other in a long time but they were fast friends! Here are the 4 kids dancing around in front of Cabela's.
Inside the shop, there was an Aquarium that had both a warm fresh water tank and a cold fresh water tank. Watching fish isn't that exciting so we didn't spend too much time hanging around in here!
There is a giant mountain in the middle of the store which has all kinds of taxidermy projects scattered around it. Crazy!
While Rhodri took his time exploring the whole shop, Rosie and I let the kids run around the shop and play inside the hunting hides, the rifle gallery, and the camping tent sections. Then when we finally left a few hours later, we convoyed together to find the hotel that we had booked to stay together! Love it when a plan comes together...

Stehekin!

This post covers the period Sunday Aug 14 - Saturday Aug 20.
We flew from Santa Barbara up to Seattle via San Francisco on Sunday. Grandma Bucky traveled with us and it was great to have her company. We landed in Seattle around 1pm and quickly collected our stuff and rented a car (upgraded to minivan - woohoo!). We made a beeline for Lake Chelan and the kids slept in the car while we enjoyed the scenic drive through the Cascade mountains. We got to the family hangout in Manson at 6pm - just as the potluck dinner was being declared ready for eating! Here is a bit of the scene.
Cinda offered her paddle boat for us to take out and although Rhiannon didn't want to go, Tryfan did. He did say that he wanted to jump in the water, and we did warn that it is reaaaallly cold water but he just jumped off the boat without further warning! We were all surprised!
After spending the night at Keith & Adrienne's house, and reuniting with Heidi and John there as well, we started Monday morning by doing some last minute grocery shopping and then raced the Lady of the Lake II to Field's Point so we could get on.
It was a very pleasant trip, as always. 4 hours of hanging out allows one to really settle in. Rhiannon had been carrying around a Rainbow Hello Kitty doll all day, and this group of young Japanese tourists were keen to take photos of Rhiannon with it. Rhiannon lapped up all the attention and I snapped this photo:
Finally we landed in Stehekin and reunited with our old truck Bruce. Hurray for Brucie Bonus! Still the same upholstery-free roof covered with souveneir magnets, cracked windshield and couch in the bed of the truck. Here we are leaving the Stehekin Landing with Mt. McGregor in the background, still covered in snow even in mid-August.
Heidi, John and the kids rode in the back with all the luggage and we made the mandatory stop at the Bakery for lunch. What a happy sight that was!
It took several discussions before the kids finally accepted that Stehekin doesn't have the same road rules as most other places.. yes, you are allowed to ride in the back of the truck with no seat belts in sight! yeeehaw!
Tuesday morning we borrowed our friends Tammy & Bob's boat "Little Dipper" and took her out on the lake, pirate flag and all. It was a gorgeous day.
After returning the boat, we played for awhile on the gigantic rope swing at the River Resort at the mouth of the Stehekin River. Here is Tryfan swinging big.
Back at Grandma Bucky's house, the 4 of us got to sleep in the yurt - so exciting! Between the constant rushing of Rainbow Creek going past just a few meters from the yurt and the screen windows to let the breeze sweep through, we all slept really well.
One recent addition to the house is this piano, which Rhiannon and Tryfan loved to play on. John taught Rhiannon one little riff, and from then on she played it over and over and over again!
We drove up to the end of the road past Tumwater camp to see if any huckleberries were still around (there were a few but not many), and we ended up seeing this really cute creature up in a tree! It had such a sweet little face, it looked like a baby animal. We didn't get too close in case it had a less sweet Mama somewhere around! We found out when we got back to the house that it was a pine marten. So cool!
On Wednesday, John and Rhodri and I set out early to go climb Mt McGregor. Here is the standard view from the back of Bruce.
It took us about 5 hours to get to Heaton Camp, which is nearly the top. Its the end of the obvious trail anyway. The trailhead is at 1500 ft and the summit is at 8122 ft, so its a lot of uphill to get through! John and I saw a bear when we were about an hour into the hike, and we sang songs and stayed together from then on. Further up the trail, we also saw what looked like pretty fresh cougar tracks as well as some fresh mountain goat tracks! I have to admit I was a little bit wary as I recalled previous hikes up this mountain when I just went solo..I wouldn't have felt too comfortable being alone on the mountain today with all this wildlife. Here are Rhodri & John taking a break just below Heaton Camp.
John stayed at the camp and chilled out while Rhodri and I found our way to the summit. It took us a couple of wrong turns (you have to look for the red arrows painted on the rocks, and one of the key arrows was obscured by snow!), but we got there eventually. John took this photo of us crossing a snow field to start the cliff scramble to the summit -- we are just below the rocks in here.
Close to the summit finally.
Hurray! At last on top of McGregor overlooking Lake Chelan with the Stehekin River valley snaking below.
Mandatory self-take
The trip back down the trail was less exciting and quite painful on certain muscles and toes. We were all really happy to be back to Grandma Bucky's house and put our feet in the creek to cool off.
But we couldn't dillydally because we were off to have dinner at Bob & Tammy's awesome home! They built a straw bale mansion which is customized with the most amazing woodworking craftsmanship AND they have a rope to climb up to the 2nd floor ceiling as well as a fireman pole to slide all the way down. Tryfan was in heaven!
Rhiannon took a bunch of photos during dinner so I made this little collage of them. It was a great meal and a fantastic evening overall.
The next day (Thursday) we laid pretty low. Went fishing and did some visiting with friends, and then up to Stehekin Valley Ranch for dinner. Here is a self take: John, Heidi and the 4 of us.
Saturday was the big Birthday Party for Grandma Bucky (turning 85) and Great Aunt Hobbie (turning 90). It was held at the place where they grew up, the Buckner Orchard and Homestead.
It was a great gathering with lots and lots of family and friends. The only bummer was that there were so many mosquitoes! There hadn't been too many mozzies around for most of the week we were there, but then all of a sudden on Friday and Saturday they all must have hatched and been hungry for blood. So, we got quite a few itchy bites from them. But it was worth it to be here celebrating family with all these good people. Here is another mandatory self take with the 2 Birthday Girls, Bucky & Hobbie.

Family shots

Rhiannon was turned loose with the camera on a couple of occasions, and I made this collage from her photos taken during the family breakfast on Aug 10th. TIP: If you click on the photo itself, it will open as a whole window and you can see the faces better.
[l to r in rows: Jody, Bill & Becky, Libby & Molly, Grandma Bucky, Aunt Hobby, Annie; Joe, Tammy, Judy, Wheeler, Heidi, Heidi & Tryfan; Phil, Joe & Egan, Herb & Christy, me, John; Will, Rhodri & Jody, Heidi & Tryfan, Rebecca, Adrienne and Cinda.]
And here are most of the same people when we all sat together in a circle and had our own family memorial for Dad. Rhiannon took a picture of the big photo we had made of him so that is in the center of the collage...
We all went for dinner last night (sat) to Woody's BBQ. Here are: Rhodri, Tryfan, Bill, me, Becky, Rhiannon, Debi, Bucky, Phil, Libby, Kristin, and Eric.
It's been a really intense and special time together this week. I think we are all ready for a change of scene, though. Stehekin, here we come!

Gracious neighbors

Despite the sad occasion that is surrounding us while we are in Santa Barbara, we've felt a huge amount of graciousness, warmth and comfort from our friends and neighbors. The highlight has been our next-door neighbors Tansy and Russ who invited us to come use their amazing salt water pool and jacuzzi at any hour of the day or night! Tryfan and Rhiannon wanted to spend every waking moment over here and this period definitely enhanced their love of water...
Here is the typical scene as we all take a break from working on the Memorial and other practical matters. The waterslide is on the left, diving board at the far end and the jacuzzi in the near left hand corner. The trampoline, fire pit, outdoor kitchen, yurt and shaded couch area aren't visible in this photo but we enjoyed these backyard features as well! The solar heater kept the pool at 80 deg F and the jacuzzi was a perfect 101 deg F. We are so, so grateful to have been able to find refuge and relaxation at their house :-)

Here are Eric and Kristin having a good time
Here is a little video showing Tryfan sliding down the waterfall slide. My favorite part is Rhodri laughing!

Another luxury was having my Mom and Dad's hairdresser Marcie come over and volunteer to cut any or all of our hairs! Here is Tryfan having a haircut. Rhiannon, Rhodri, Will and I all took advantage of her generosity too. And she even brought over her kids to play with R & T during the hair cutting sessions.
Here are 2 of her kids with Rhiannon looking for eggs in the chicken coop.
My dear friend Denise came over with her kids one afternoon as well, and it was great to be able to share the joy of the neighbors' pool with them!

Remembering Grandpa Carl

We travelled to Santa Barbara on Friday 5 August by flying from London-Heathrow to LAX and then renting a car and driving up the coast. It took forever to get there but the kids were really good and we made it eventually.

All of my siblings had already arrived to the family home and everyone had been spending the past days grieving, crying, laughing, hugging together. When we arrived we were able to finally participate and it felt good.
Saturday morning, Rhodri and Will joined my Dad's golf buddy Butch for a Memorial round of golf at the normal tee off time of 6am. This time, however, the 3 guys toasted Carl with a shot of whisky at each of the 18 holes. Here they are after the round when we joined them for brunch.. this is something that Carl would have fully approved of and participated in.
All of Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were spent preparing for Dad's Memorial service which was held on Wednesday 10 August. Other family members arrived on Tuesday and we had a big family dinner over at Grandma Bucky's house that night in preparation for the big day on Wednesday.

Wednesday started with a burrito breakfast (kind of a Gans family tradition) outside in the cool foggy morning air. There were 30 of us present for this.
We had our own family tribute to Carl during which we took turns sharing memories and other things that we treasure about my Dad. We put small rocks into a vase which we then filled with gladiola flowers to take to the main memorial service. We didn't take many photos of this intimate and special gathering, but I did take this one of Rhiannon in front of the scene, with the vase and candle behind her.

The main service was at a large church downtown Santa Barbara. We had been thinking that we would have the Memorial at Dad's church, but then we were advised to move to a larger venue because that church could only hold 300 people and someone said (don't know who because this happened before we arrived) that there might be closer to 700 people coming! It turned out to be a good decision, because there were actually somewhere around 700 people at the service. Don't know the exact number but it was a full house. I know it is soooo not done to take photos at a Memorial service inside a big fancy church, but during the last hymn (Amazing Grace) Tryfan was asleep on my lap so I didn't stand up to sing. I loved the enormous stained-glass windows and the serene atmosphere in the church, and it warmed my heart to see my brothers with their arms around my Mom.

I spent the entire day crying and completely immersed in grief, sadness and gratitude. But it felt good to be allowed to do this and to share him with close friends and family. However, writing about this on the blog and posting pictures doesn't do justice to the magnitude of the feelings and grief that I/ we have been experiencing. But what's a gal to do? Life goes on and so it seems important to try and capture this occasion, however sad and terrible it feels.