YoseMighty 2013

Even though last year's trip was a bust, Dylan's family planned another trip to the lovely Yosemite Valley over spring break, with the contingency that if there was rain or snow or wind or cold temps or anything else miserable sounding, we wouldn't go. Our trip was postponed for a day because of a storm, but when we actually arrived in the valley we had lovely weather, which made for a lovely time. 

Before I go on to post some of the billion pictures that I took, I'd like to take a moment to say that I HATE sleeping bags. In an attempt to save some space in our overcrowded minivan, Dylan and I brought sleeping bags instead of our usual down comforter. Well, we saved some space but nearly froze to death at night because even though they're made for cold-ish temps, there wasn't enough weight to keep me warm. Not to mention that I'm a side sleeper and that doesn't work to well in a mummy bag. Every time I'd try to roll over or try to get up to go calm a wimpering child, I'd find myself completely tangled up and unable to find my way out. Seriously, whoever invented the mummy bag did not use me for product testing. And poor little Stella was squeezed into this super warm, fuzzy baby sleeping bag and she kept waking up and saying "stuck" over and over until I'd unzip her. Next time, we're going back to blankets!

Okay, enough with my rant. Here's some pictures:

A few weeks before our trip, I checked out every book I could find on Yosemite from the Library. There was also this DVD called "Yosemite 4 Kids" which showed video footage and had explanations of different parts of the park. After watching the video a dozen times, Emma and Grady decided that they just HAD to hike the Mist Trail (aka a "strenuous" several mile hike up a steep granite staircase covered in mist from Vernal Falls). Super Dad was brave enough to take them. I kept our runners (Landon & Stella) back at camp. They survived the hike and were SO proud of themselves.

 

Behind our campsite there was a little meandering creek that the boys couldn't stay out of. They started with innocent pine cone races and then ended up fully wading in it. I could only be a little bit annoyed since they are boys...why would I expect anything different!

 

 Grandpa David brought Elk burger and Elk steak for dinners. The reward for eating them was s'mores. Lots and lots of s'mores.

Stella was just a little bit cold in the morning...

Oh, and she had some road rash on her nose that happened within minutes of arriving

Climbing around Yosemite Falls

The kids minus Stella

Because I was wearing her...

Pretty kids, pretty scenery

I don't exactly trust Landon in here with Stella

Taking a break during a family bike ride through the Valley

This view NEVER gets old:

A shout out to our parents for the trailer hitch and bike rack! Now we just need some new suspension...

On our way out we had to visit Bridalveil Falls

 So there you have it. We survived spring break camping in Yosemite. And we had such a good time that it almost makes us forget about last year's trip!

No Man's Land

The back corner of our property converges with the back corners of three other properties, each with some sort of fort/tree house in various states of disrepair. None of the property boundaries are clearly marked- much to my land surveying husband's dismay- and three of the four properties front different streets, meaning 3 different neighborhoods are represented. 

 

Two of the four houses no longer have kids living at them, so my kids and our back neighbors have taken over this no man's land and comandeered the remaining forts as their own. They sit up there for hours and hours cutting up leaves and berries to feed the other neighbor's chickens through the fence. And even though it's quite run-down back there, and not a little bit unsafe, and I may have seen Landon wielding a large kitchen knife out there today (from the other neighbors. don't worry, i replaced it with plastic picnic cutlery which is much safer, right?), this warmer weather that we've been having this week is the beginning of summer freedom. I get hours a day where they are playing with their friends outside in this unaccounted for land (which is what childhood memories are made up of) and they aren't cooped up inside being bored. It's a win-win....until we have to go to the emergency room because someone's finger gets chopped off with a knife, or someone's eye gets poked on a rusty piece of fence wire, or.... Well, anyway, TODAY I'm gonna enjoy the peace :)

Lest you think I've been swallowed whole....

Here are three articles/blog posts that I've read of late that pretty much sum up my life:

1. On how I feel as a parent of multiple children

2. On being an introvert with extroverted children

3. On just about everything else

Read 'em and weep along with me ;)

In other news, my kids are still super cute.

Flies on the wall

If you were the cable guy, a client of dylan's, or a door-to-door salesman stopping by, you might overhear conversations like this:

Me: Landon why are your pants wet?

Landon: I got them out of the laundry.

Me: You mean you pulled the pants that you pooped in earlier out of the hamper and put them back on?!

Landon: I want to wear these jeans. I'll wipe them off with a towel.

Me: YOU CAN'T WEAR PANTS THAT YOU POOPED IN!

Landon: crying and screaming as I take them off him and put them back into the laundry.

 

Another Birthday and Another Trip to the ER

My goodness, I promise that I don't intend for this blog to be a catalog of my kids' various injuries and trips to the ER. One of these days I'll fill you in on The Great Road Trip of 2012, but first.....

Happy First Birthday Stella June!

Stella is full of life, looooooooves playing with her siblings, waving hi and bye at every.single.person that she sees, courtesy laughing when she hears other people laughing or being crazy, and snuggling and giving hugs. We liken her to a little puppy because she's always following us around the house and eating anything and everything from the floor. We've also been known to call her Rod Stewart because of that, um, beautiful hair do that she has.

At her check-up, she weighed in at 23lbs 1.8oz. I can't seem to find the exact numbers for the other kids at 1, but I do know that Emma was in the low 18lb range and Landon was around 21 lbs. Needless to say, she's big. And strong.

And yesterday, 6 days after her 1st birthday, she got her finger smashed in a sliding door. In God's mercy, Dylan was there right away and able to rescue her, and our friend was here and able to watch the other kids so that we could rush our screaming baby girl to the ER. Once she calmed down, she really didn't seem to be bothered  by the fact that the tip of her finger was literally just hanging on by a small piece of skin and bleeding all over the place. (TMI?) She was waving her hands all around, and playing peek-a-boo and clapping, enjoying the extra attention from her parents and lots of nurses and doctors.

Her left middle finger was fractured and the nail completely removed. The doctor stitched it up on either side of the nail bed, and said that hopefully she won't lose her fingertip and hopefully the nail will grow back. Yes, hopefully so! Meanwhile, we have to keep her finger bandaged well and try to keep her from ripping it off! Yikes!

In other news, we have officially met our health care deductable this year so any other injuries, illnesses or surgeries will pretty much be free for the rest of the year....

A Birthday and a Head Wound

Today the most independent child in the whole wide world turned 3. It was a bit anticlimactic since we celebrated 3 weeks ago. Really, Landon was quite confused every time someone told him happy birthday since he's been calling himself "bigger enough" since his party. 

Isn't he cute?

After lunch the kids were playing in the back yard and Grady came running into the house yelling and motioning that Landon hit his head and it was cut open down his whole entire face. Needless to say, I ran out back right away, only to find my sweet little birthday boy running toward me with blood pouring from his head and down his face. One good look at the super deep gash in his forehead and he was off to the emergency room with his dad. Four stitches later, he looks like this....

Even though stitches aren't a good thing, after seeing the rock that he fell on (over the fence in the neighbor's yard where he isn't supposed to play), we are SO thankful that it wasn't worse. And if you ask Landon, it isn't bad at all. He stopped crying before he even got to the hospital and since he got frozen yogurt afterward, he is just fine. Really, he hasn't slowed down at all. He's still climbing and jumping and being his typical daredevil self. Oy!

Will someone please tell me that this isn't a foreshadowing of the year to come!!!

Celebrating Dylan

Once upon a time, my super hard working husband was reading Joy the Baker's blog about a trip she took to Maine and a lobster boil she had on the beach. (Yes, my husband reads Joy the Baker, and no, Joy the Baker is not my sister Joy). Since his birthday was coming up in just a few days, and the superhero party that I was planning for him and Grady and Landon to share didn't really seem to excite him much, he decided that he should throw himself a party on the beach, complete with a lobster boil.

Well, we don't live in Maine, near a beach, or have any clue how to do a lobster boil, but since you only turn 33 once, Dylan called up the family and invited them along anyway (we had to keep the guest list small because, um, lobsters aren't cheap... and by small, I mean that we invited our 26 immediate family members).

After a trip to Ranch 99, the Asain supermarket that sells live lobsters, we headed 2 hours away on windy, bumpy roads, through super thick fog and arrived at the McClures beach parking lot. At some point along the drive as we were receiving not-super-excited text messages from our fellow travelers, ie."dude. are you serious?" Dylan realized that he may be just a little bit like his father in thinking that this whole trip was perfectly reasonable. And then, once we made it to the parking lot, we had to trek down a mountain sherpa-style with our arms and backs loaded down with kids, firewood, buckets, pots, blankets, extra clothes and some back-up food in case the boil didn't work out. But, in the famous words of the middle-aged lady we met last time we went to this beach, YOLO.

Well, Joy the Baker and the rest of you will be happy to hear that it all worked out just fine. No one caught hypothermia, no one got sick from eating food cooked in ocean water, only one of the kids almost died, and after we all hiked back up the mountain and drove 2 hours home in the pitch dark, people said it was the best birthday party they'd ever been to. Success all around!

In case you're ever wondering how to have a lobster boil, here's what you've gotta do:

1. Get a big galvanized party bucket and fill it half way with ocean water. Cover with foil. Place on a raging fire.

~let the kids explore, get drenched, cliff jump because it's gonna be a while before dinner is ready~

2. Let the water come to a boil and then boil for 10 minutes just to be sure to kill any bacteria or funky stuff that may be in the ocean water.

3. Throw in some halved onions, heads of garlic, and little potatoes.

4. 10 minutes later, add your live lobsters.

5. 3 minutes later, add some ears of corn.

6. 5 minutes later, pull it all out and help yourself to an amazing feast!

(yes, those are hot dogs in the foreground. they were the back-up plan and a bit more popular than lobsters with the kids)

 

You should totally do it some time.