Packed lunches

For the past week or so, Rhiannon has been asking for packed lunches rather than hot meals at school. Usually the mornings are quite chaotic in our house, so Rhodri and I almost always refuse to make packed lunches for her.

Well, the Little Miss has taken matters into her own hands!
I came downstairs yesterday and found she had relocated the stepstool so she could reach into the upper shelves of the refridgerator, thereby accessing the goods to put in her lunch! She proudly showed a full lunchbox which had a sandwich that was already cut in half with butter and cucumber inside, fruit, string cheese and a little treat.

So she has been continuing to do this and finally I eeked out of her that a special someone also has packed lunches and so he ("OB") has been sitting at the same table when Rhiannon has a packed lunch. I guess the hot lunch diners have to collect their food first and so aren't able to sit down until a few minutes after the packed lunch diner have sat down. So that's the excitement in our house - oh, AND Rhiannon has another wobbly tooth.

Extended birthday for Rhods

Rhodri was away for his birthday, so we weren't able to celebrate until he got back home on Thursday. But then Sioned & Lorenzo were coming to stay on Friday night so we saved some celebrating for when they arrived - we cooked dinner over the fire in the back garden and then went through a few bottles of wine amongst all of us, later enjoying the additional company of Emma and Rob (S&O's parents). Then we used the excuse to gather people and go to the pub on Saturday afternoon, and then another friend delivered a birthday cake and champers on Sunday! So he really milked it this year even though it wasn't a "big" one.
Saturday was the most photogenic, although it was all good fun.
Sioned, Lorenzo, Rhodri and the kids went geocaching in the forest nearby - here they are when they found the treasure (I had stayed at home to work a little bit):
I met them at the Red Lion pub down the road and several other families joined us! It was a gorgeous afternoon as you can see...
All the kids ran wild in the grounds, playing games and climbing trees and all sorts. There was a herd of about 9 or 10 of them at one point, ranging 3-8 years old. Here is a typical scene:
But then one of them found a stash of old furniture or something in the field behind the pub, and they busily carried all the dresser drawers, tables, chairs and random bit to some secret hiding place in the trees where they were then building something new. Hmm. We left them to it because they were very happy being so industrious and creative! But then the pub landlady saw what they were up to and they had to put all the pieces back where they found them.
It was great to just hang out with Sioned and Lorenzo. We love Sions' new hair cut!
Back at home, Sunday morning watching Star Wars (episode 5 - the Empire Strikes Back)
Good times! We love people visiting, going to the pub, running wild and then being cozy on the couches!

Weald Woodfair

Today I took the 4 kids (ours + Sophie & Oscar) to the Weald Woodfair
http://www.bentley.org.uk/#/woodfair/4525168793
which was about 25 minutes drive away from us at the Bentley Motor Museum. It was an unsettled day with intense heavy rain showers followed by partial brightening of the skies - perfect to get all suited up in our rain gear and head to this event! The troops all took turns learning archery skills...
Rhiannon was really good at it - the pirate-looking guy who had about 25 earrings in his right ear was well impressed with her skill.
We walked around for a couple of hours and then I finally caved in and said that we could all get ice creams and ride the miniature railway.
Then they played on the adventure playground and were all trying to out do each other in their sliding stunts and what-have-you. That's when Rhiannon's stunt went horribly wrong somehow and she got a big fat lip. I didn't actually see this happen but I was near enough to hear the cries and go help. It wasn't too bad of an injury - just a lot of blood at the time. Good excuse for all of us to do a trip to the bathroom and wash our hands and faces!
It was about this time that S&O's Mom called to ask when she could have her kids back and so we made our way to the exit. I tried to take a photo of all 4 together looking extremely scruffy and worn out, but Oscar ran away so I only managed to get 3 of them in the photo above! I like how Tryfan is pulling up his leggings, Rhiannon is holding a cloth to her mouth to stop the blood, and Sophie is looking laid back and cool. Good times!

Barrowful of fun

This looks like a classic summertime photo - eating ice lollies in the wheelbarrow on a warm (and cloudy by the looks of it) afternoon.

Lost tooth and hair visitors

Well, Rhiannon lost her first tooth this week. It had been wobbly for a couple of weeks and then finally fell out when she was at school yesterday. Yes, the Tooth Fairy did visit and apparently she left 1 pound in the same envelope that the tooth was put in. What a sly Fairy she is!

I don't know why Rhiannon drew the lines on her face in this photo but she did. It took quite a bit of scrubbing to get these off but a little scrubbing once in awhile doesn't hurt!

Speaking of scrubbing, we've also had an invasion of "hair visitors" (aka, lice) this week. This all happened while I was back in Santa Barbara by myself so I didn't get to participate in the treatment and attempted removal of these little fellows, but I'm sure Rhodri did a thorough job!

He is going away next week so I'm sure I will get some payback for all these treats I missed.

Article about love

I read this article from OdeWire, a website that I love checking in with because of its supply of positive news from around the world.
http://odewire.com/117588/benefits-of-adding-love-to-your-schools-curriculum.html

I love the concept of the Compliment Guys! How much better would the world be if every town had some guys on the corner handing out free compliments to each individual that visited them!

First day of school

Today was the first day back at school. I thought it was a little bit harsh to start on a Monday and have everyone go straight into a full week, but whaddayagonnadoo? Rhiannon was really excited and was begging for us to go to school a full 40 minutes before we would normally otherwise go, so we compromised a bit and did go early. We were the first ones on the playground. Tryfan went to the nursery school part of the school today and he was pretty excited to see his old friends again.
Ready for "Year 1" (aka 1st Grade in American lingo). She is in the same class as last year, as it is a shared Reception (aka Kindergarten in American)/ Year 1. Sophie and Rhiannon are the only girls in their year and now are the oldest, so they have plenty of bossing around opportunities coming up for them!
We are so lucky to get hand-me-down school uniforms from our friend Sarah, so all we had to buy was new shoes for Rhiannon this year. She chose a particular model which all the cool girls from the year ahead of her have: there is a secret compartment below the heel which opens from inside the shoe and has a little figure of a girl and another one of a tiger! Funny.

Today was also a special day because it would have been my parent's 41st anniversary. I was teary everytime I thought about this today. So that combined with the emotions that welled up when we were confronted with people at school asking how the summer was and all that made for a very wet day for me. Fortunately we live in a small place and word gets around pretty quick, so most people knew about Grandpa Carl's passing. But I did have conversations with both T & R's teachers to let them know and to ask them to be supportive and/or shielding when it came to the inevitable sharing of summer experiences.

Tomorrow I am flying back home to Santa Barbara to spend a week with my brothers and sisters and Mom. I'm really glad that my boss said I could take compassionate leave at this time, since we were technically on vacation when we came over in August. It will be strange to travel alone!

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.