Mt. Shuksan Down Under

I mentioned something a couple of posts down, (that Mt. Shuksan may be the 2nd most photographed mountain in the world), that reminded me of a funny story.

Back in the mid-80's I spent a year in Australia as an exchange student. Wonderful people, glorious country, amazing year. I lived for a time with a Dutch family who owned a photo shop. Looking around one day, I noticed something familiar. You know how when you buy a frame it usually has a display-picture in it already? Well, several of their frames held a picture of Mt. Shuksan.

I picked one up, showed it to my host family, and said, "Look! That's near where I live. I've stood right where this photo was taken!"

They thought I was joking. Absolutely did not believe me.

And I can understand why.

Now, Australia has a beauty all its own, and I appreciate it. Loved it. Came home with hundreds of pictures of it. But when you have people who live where 'wilderness' can look like this



you get a little perspective.


When they saw this



they concluded that the photo must've been taken from some extremely remote area, (I think they guessed in the Alps), not right beside a paved road, at a ski area.

We're Cool

Okay, I'll stop complaining about the heat. It's actually cooled down quite a bit. Daytime temps are 70's and 80's, and down in the 60's at night. Hallelujah.

But I'm really, really thankful we can do THIS when it's hot! We go to the lake. In this case, with our friends. As long as I can count eight boys' heads, everything is fine.

Of course, this...

usually leads to this.

Kerry gives the boys rides on his old wind-surfer.

And our friends brought their canoe, to add to the fun. Though the boys seem to take great delight in capsizing it deliberately.

That's my Tater-bug, way out in the middle! He's a pretty good swimmer, but I'm glad to see he was wearing a life jacket if he was going out that far. This part of the lake is like a fjord... VERY deep. Over 300' deep.

We BBQed dinner on my parents deck, (103F, at one point), and then enjoyed the cooler evening.

The boys are all watching for shooting stars and satellites. And lightning. For several nights thunderheads built up over the foothills of the Cascades, but no rain for us.

They are lounging on a fancy-schmancy airbed my parents have been sleeping on... out on the deck.

We're cool... oh so very cool!

FNAR again

Why?

Tate was loading the lunch dishes into the dishwasher, singing aloud a song he was apparently composing on the spot.

Why did the lyrics of the song consist entirely of one word?

And why was that word, "Twitchy"?

Why?

Alpine Adventure

One way to beat the heat is to rise above it... literally. Around here there's snow in the high-country year-round!

I missed out on this adventure because of an appointment, but Kerry and Grandpa Grasshopper took the boys on a great day-hike in the Mt. Baker/Snoqualmie National Forest.

Wyatt, of course, took a bazillion pictures.

Behind Tate and Gunnar you see a mountain that I'm told is the second most photographed mountain in the world. (After Mt. Fuji.)

Do you know it?

Even Gunnar carried his pack (without any complaints) up the steep trail to the top of Table Mountain. See the other boys up ahead?

Here's my favorite three grasshoppers, at the top of Table Mountain, overlooking the Mt. Baker Ski Area.

And Kerry, with Mt. Baker behind him.

Do you know the bird? He's changing from his white winter coat to his speckled summer coat.

WHEW!

I just last night finished (at least for now) the big project I've been working on.

I've been lurking around my favorite blogs, keeping up on you guys, though I haven't left many comments. But I have to say that I'm amazed that, in spite of my lack of communication, you've been checking in. (I see the Traffic Feed, at the bottom.)

Thank you, faithful friends :0)


Since you appear to be interested, this is what we've been doing:

Sweat.

Swim.

Sweat.

Bounce. (Trampoline.)

Too hot to bounce.

Sweat.

Swim.

Sweat.

Sleep.

Too hot to sleep.

Sweat.

Swim.

etc.


I look in the boys' laundry basket and I see:
* swimsuits (what they wear in the day)
* towels (duh)
* underwear (what they've been wearing at night)
And that's about it. Hardly any clothes. Haven't seen any socks for days.

We may not have air conditioning, but we have box fans. *eyes roll* Yes, there's nothing quite like sleeping with two fans going full blast. The constant roar reminds me of old WW2 movies. I think I've been dreaming about B-17 Bombers.

Or didgeridoos. They sound oddly similar.


In other news, the reference to %^&*( Watershed Nazis, in an earlier post, was due to a phone call we received last week. Everyone on city water got a recorded message from the mayor, explaining that the heat was causing an algae bloom in the lake. The algae was clogging the filters at the water treatment plant, therefore they were asking all of us to stop watering lawns and ornamental gardens. (Watering vegetable gardens was okay.)

Fine. I'm good, so far. We hardly water our lawn anyway. Why? Brown and dormant is fine with me. If you water it, then it grows and you have to mow it more often!

But the mayor went on, in his pompous, self-righteous, weasely, liberal whine to add that he had set up an anonymous tip line, so we could all rat out our neighbors, who would then be fined and threatened with having their water shut off.

If I wasn't hot already, I was then!

Good grief, what kind of a community does that fool want to produce? Hasn't he learned any history? I wonder how he'd like living in WW2 Holland, or Denmark, under the Nazi Occupation? Or in Communist China? One neighbor "informs" on another, and people disappear, never to be seen again.

I know, I know, I'm exaggerating.

But not much.

Of course we cooperated with the watering restrictions. We're good citizens. But I can promise you that if I happened to notice any dampness in my neighbor's lawns or flower beds, the mayor would be the last person I'd tell.

Just because

Just in case you were curious, if you live on the water and you wonder if we'd like to come over?

Yes.

Yes we would. In fact, we'll be there in five minutes.

We've had quite the heat wave in the PNW lately, in case I haven't mentioned, you know, a few times already. So when friends on the lake invited us over for potluck dinner we didn't think twice! Of course, we would've gone anyway, since the "main attraction" was a chance to visit with our friends, missionaries who live in Guatemala :0)

Had a great time visiting, the kids played in the lake, and check out the gorgeous sunset.

Grandma and Grandpa Grasshopper

Tate and Gunnar
(Wyatt was at Aunty Tami's)

Chickadee

I sat at our dining room table recently, balancing my checkbook and paying bills.

Ugh. What an unpleasant way to spend a summer day!

I tried mightily to concentrate as a herd of boys migrated from the complex game they'd invented (involving Legos) in the playroom, to the pool, to the trampoline. (Yes! A trampoline! A new adventure... more about that later.) A loud thunk on the window startled me and I suspected the boys of throwing fir cones, but didn't see anyone.

Shortly afterward Gunnar came blazing into the house, his eyes open wide, and said, "Mom! Come quick! We've found a bird and it's stuck!"

Stuck? Stuck?

Not exactly stuck, but stunned I think. A little chickadee sat under the edge of the trampoline. No blood or obvious injury.


We each took turns holding it, gently. The boys brought it some bird seed, and a shallow cup of water, and Tate ran for the camera. In spite of my repeated suggestions to move back, because the camera can't focus quite that close, this is the best shot we got.

Our little chickadee friend hung around for about half an hour before he recovered enough to fly away.

I think that explains the thunk on the window.

Still alive...

Don't get excited, this isn't a real post.

Oh, I'm working on one. It's all in my head.

In the meantime:

* We're fine, nobody sick, no visits to the ER, nothing dramatic.

* It's hot. (Let the whine-fest begin). 103 yesterday, at my parents' house. We spent the afternoon IN the lake. Not AT the lake, IN the lake. In our corner of the PNW we're not used to much heat. Nobody has air conditioning in their home. And that's usually fine. But for about one week every summer, or maybe two, we have hot weather. Some 40+ year old mothers join their kids in the backyard kiddie pool, and get taken by surprise when an unexpected man comes to meet with her husband, but I'm sure I don't know anything about that. (Trying to put it behind me.)

* I'm still working on "the project", which is about 3/4 finished. When I'm no longer tied to the computer I may feel more like blogging. *sigh*

* I have been scribbling notes on the back of our list of library books, now probably overdue. However, I now have no idea what some of these notes mean. If I figure it out, you can look forward to reading about such things as "B-17 bomber", "naked", "gogglers", "%^&*( Watershed Nazis", and the ever popular "Legos".

Yes, it's after midnight. That's when it's cool enough to think straight. Sort of.

Hope you're enjoying your summer!

UPDATE: Friday 7-31

God is merciful. It's 30 degrees cooler today.

I'm making good progress on The Project.

Whew.

Bloggy Break-ation

My mom, who lives a mere 15 minutes away and with whom I talk nearly every day, has been disappointed with me.

"You haven't been blogging!"

I know. I'll be back. I don't think any of my regular readers (all three of you... ha ha), will be worse off for not knowing what the little Grasshoppers are up to. But, in case you were concerned...

All is well.

Funny, though, that what I would call "normal, good days" aren't very interesting to write about. And, just possibly, not terribly interesting to read about.


So here's the latest, breaking news:

* It's summer.

* We're playing.

* There was a glorious thunderstorm, the night before last.

* On rainy days we do a bit of school work.

* Now I know what "Guy Fawkes Day" is all about.

* Wyatt had a birthday - reported in the post below.

* We are doing an experiment to try to discover if bean plants will always twine the same direction around a support, or whether it varies.

* And I'm working on a "project" (not a quilt). It's taking up a fair bit of my free time, and I have to do it on the computer... which is affecting my desire to sit here and blog. (As does sunny weather.)

I hope that will hold you for awhile. In case you need more to ponder, please, consider the following:

* My otherwise adorable seven- eight-year-old boy will remove himself to the hallway when he is upset, and stand in front of the mirror to watch himself throw a tantrum. I have no explanation for this.

* Why on earth would I give in to a moment of nostalgia and buy Sugar Babies as a treat for the boys when two of the three of them have BRACES?

* If you happen to run into "Eduardo", "Cyndi", or "Carlos", please assure them that I have no need for Viagra, so they can stop sending me offers.

Thank you. That will be all.

Introducing...

My 13 year old...

Yep. Wyatt had a birthday, yesterday. He's choosing to delay his "family party" until we're all together, on vacation next month, but we did have a special dinner and his favorite dessert - raspberry pie.

I am truly boggled to think that we've been on this parenting journey for thirteen years. It couldn't have been so long ago that Wyatt was scooting around the living room on his back (he didn't crawl), fascinated with rockets, doing toddler Elvis impersonations ("Goodness! Gracious! Great balls of fire!"), taking naps, and doing the "fakie baby" dance.

But today I have a 13 year old that mows the lawn, rides his bike to piano lessons and back, has figured out more about his digital camera than I will ever learn, writes and illustrates his own stories, and knows things. That I don't.

He makes me crazy sometimes... being such a boy, with energy oozing out of every pore. (Do they all think it's their mission in life to dismantle my house, and then my sanity?) But I'm in awe of his quick mind, his coordinated body, and the growth we're seeing in many areas.

So, congratulations to my oldest, my 13 year old!

Happy Birthday... and many more :0)