A taste of summer

I have a TON of posts to catch up on. And I will get around to it, eventually. This summer has been SO busy and SO fun! Here's just a few random pics for now.

Crazy Weekend -- Part 2

So that wasn't meant to be a cliffhanger ending. It's just that it suddenly became 10 pm and I couldn't type anymore. I honestly turn into a pumpkin at 10:00. It's true.

So back to the story....There's something about leaving for a weekend roadie at 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon that is so reckless. Daring. Irresponsible.

The irresponsible part was dumping my church duties on the Primary president at the last minute (again, sorry Aimee!). The reckless part is leaving town without a plan--but that's absolutely the best part too. I love a good roadie!!!

Luckily our kids are game for a good road trip too. Mostly.


Yosemite is only 3 or 4 hours straight south of where we live. IF the main mountain pass is open. But this year had crazy snow and the pass was nowhere near open. But Keith's need to be in the Center of the Known Universe was great enough that we took the long way without hesitation. It doubles the distance but we didn't mind. As we got rolling, we pulled out a map and made a tentative plan for where we would stop for the night. Jamestown is the biggest town before you hit the National Park land. We figured that would be a good place to find a cheap chain motel for the night.

We got to Jamestown at about 9 pm. The kids were finally nodding off and it was perfect timing. We passed the quaint historic hotels in the old part of downtown and, from Keith's recollection of his last drive through Jamestown on a rainy night 6 months ago, there was a newer strip-mall type area just ahead. There was sure to be a Comfort Inn or a Motel 6 there.

We passed a Taco Bell and a couple of shops closed for the night and then found ourselves back on the dark freeway. What happened to the rest of the town? Oh well, Keith remembered a bunch of tiny little towns with hotels along the way. We would just stop in the next town and find a room. The next "town" was 20 minutes away. It was called Chinese Camp. And, yes, there was a possibility that we could have slept there. There were a couple of dilapidated cottages with a spray painted sign out front, dimly lit by a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling of a dilapidated porch.

We kept driving.

It gets pretty dark at 10 pm, especially on winding roads with towering trees overhead. And remember, I turn into a pumpkin at 10:00. Girlfriend needed a place to sleep. Pronto. According to the map, there wasn't much ahead before we ended up on National Park land--there was surely nowhere to stop once we crossed that boundary.

Finally, there were lights ahead and we found ourselves in civilization. Groveland, CA. There was a darling little one-block downtown that still looked pretty lively. Lots of lights, a couple of bars and two cute, historic looking hotels. YES! I jumped out and went into the first hotel. The lady told me that they were all full. I asked where else we might stay. She said the only place that might still have room would be the Groveland MOTEL, a few blocks down the road. She really emphasized MOTEL. Ok. Fine. We soon found ourselves at the Groveland Motel. We drove past a couple of little cabins to the office.

The place looked dead. I walked into the office and tried to make enough noise that someone might hear me. Luckily a tired looking lady in ill-fitting sweats sauntered in.

"Do you have any rooms for tonight?"
"Well.....we do but all we have left are our family sized units."
"Ok...how much are they?"
"Well.....they have four beds in them. They sleep 8 people."
"That's bigger than I need. Is that really all you have?"
"Well.....yup. For one night it would be $150 plus tax."

I told her I would talk to my husband and be right back. Because HOLY FRIJOLES! I didn't plan on spending $150 at a MOTEL for this impromptu little journey! Sheesh!!! I got back in the car and told Keith what I had learned. My kids stared at me with their tired, bleary eyes. Finally, we decided that we didn't have much choice besides sleeping on the side of the road in an upright position in our Honda Civic. That wouldn't have gone over well for any of us.

So I went back in, gagged a little when I gave her my credit card, and walked out with the keys to our family sized unit--whatever that meant. She pointed me in the direction of the dark and off we went. We passed our family sized unit a couple of times until we realized what we were looking for.

People, we had just rented ourselves a doublewide trailer!!! Seriously!!!

We opened the plastic doorknob into a sprawling mobile home, complete with a kitchen full of lime green appliances AND a lime green kitchen sink. The floor had mismatched linoleum tiles peeling up all over the place and when we took off our shoes, our socks stuck like velcro to the rugs. A little creepy. But I think the rugs were strategically placed to cover the really obvious sags in the floor--the places where you might actually fall through. But the place was big. For a motel room.

Party in the doublewide!!


It's always fun when you go camping late at night and wake up the next morning to figure out where you are. But I couldn't really wrap my mind around this view.


As we drove back to the office to drop off our key, we realized it could have been worse. So much worse. This was Suite 13. The one next to it might have been the honeymoon suite. See the flowers out front?
I still can't believe we dropped 150 bills to sleep in a trailer park.

Anyway, the day was about to get better. We only had an hour or so to drive before hitting the valley.


THEN....we came to this:


And were greeted by THIS:


Hello, Captain. It's been far too long.


In case you were wondering, this is THE CENTER OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE, the thing for which all life revolves for someone who climbs big rocks. The biggest, baddest rock climb ever. Keith and the kids are planning their route up the granddaddy of them all...The Nose:


Keith is telling Bennett of his past escapades on El Cap's right side.


We spent a few minutes gawking at the climbers living high above us for a couple of days. Oh to be so free!!! (And in climbing shape like that....)


Yosemite is jaw-droppingly amazing. Pictures can't even tell an inch of the story.


We stopped at the store (for some tasty verde tamales) and spent a few minutes at the visitors center. Leah got a few minutes of one-on-one time with John Muir.


Our goal for the day was to hike the Four Mile Trail, which would take us from the valley floor to the top of the rim with a measly (haha) 3,000 foot elevation gain. The last mile of the trail was closed due to snow up high so it was really a three mile trail (six round trip). As we were getting ready, we had a bear sighting (where's smokey?)--

This is not the Card family's first bear encounter in Yosemite. Our first was several years ago and involves a little illegal breaking and entering (by the bear, not us). Definitely a good story on it's own. Another adventure for another day...

One of our biggest reasons for wanting to be in Yosemite that weekend was to see the waterfalls. With such a HUGE snow year like we've had, we knew the waterfalls would be absolutely raging. And they were. There was so much water coming off the falls and waterfalls appeared where they don't usually exist. It was awesome! Our hike would give us the best view of them all.



About halfway up, we had a little blue visitor. Bryce loves birds and it was fun to check this guy out as he came and landed on a tree pretty close to us. We took a minute to look at him then continued on our way.

The bird flew off but we saw him on another tree branch at the next switchback. And then at the next switchback. And pretty soon we realized that this bird was along for the ride. This little dude flew from tree to tree all the way to the top of the trail. It was a little weird but he was totally harmless. Even ate peanuts out of Keith's hand.

I have a feeling we weren't the first hikers to be friends with this little bird. I am starting to think that Yosemite is just a natural setting for a zoo. We think we are out in the wild wilderness going there but it's just a bunch of tame, trained animals putting on a Shamu-like show for all us idiots looking for mild adventure.

But the scenery is for real. This was as high as the trail would allow us to go.

A picnic lunch at eye level with Half Dome is pretty freaking awesome.


Too bad he missed out on our prime Half Dome view spot.


The waterfalls definitely did not dissapoint. Yosemite Falls was so massive, it sounded like an airplane flying overhead, even from the other side of the valley. Amazing.


And then we got in the car and drove home.

It was a long stinkin drive for a 24 hour getaway. But totally TOTALLY worth it!

Even the trailer park.

Surgery, Carpet, and the Center of the Known Universe

Where to begin with this strange tale?

It was a week after Bennett's big chin accident. The last day of school. Keith had agreed to take his single, lone, solitary (and somewhat annoying) scout on a camp out. Keith is an incredible scout master, no doubt. But all that time spent on one single kid? Who would rather play video games than start fires or tie knots? Not Keith's number one idea of fun. Bennett usually tags along with Keith on all scout related things but that night had social affairs. He had been invited to an end of school party and had no intention of missing it. So Leah gladly filled in on the scout duties.

The night went just fine and Keith's plan was to split as early in the morning as possible. But, you see, there was a perfect willow tree nearby. And if you've ever been out with Keith when he finds a willow tree, you would know that a good willow tree makes awesome whistles. So before he and Leah came home, he pulled out his pocket knife and carved a couple of whistles. Somewhere in there--get ready to cringe--Keith got bumped by one of his campers and his knife ended up taking a dime size chunk off the knuckle of his left pointer finger. Which, for a surgeon, just so happens to be a pretty important finger.

When they got home, Leah ran inside to tell me that "daddy cut off him finger!" I'm sure I don't even need to say that I pretty much freaked out. But Keith was cool as could be. He came inside, corrected Leah's slight exaggeration and quickly got his medical kit out. He then went ahead and skin grafted himself right there in our dining room. How's that for mad skillz??? He had managed to save his piece of skin from his knife blade and brought it home for a little surgery.

Seriously? EEEK!!!!

It was really bloody and hard to watch--but like any good train wreck, I watched in amazement. I kept telling him that he really should have someone with TWO HANDS fixing him but he pretended to not even hear my crazy panicked ramblings. (Fast forward the tale a couple weeks: his finger healed perfectly. I'm telling you, this man can literally fix ANYTHING!! He's the best there is fer sure.)

So, this whole surgery in the dining room really messed up our Saturday plans. Not that we had any big plans to begin with. But still. Total downer. So what else was there to do? We rented a carpet cleaner and gave our carpet a fresh shampoo. It was all we could come up with.

The kids had a birthday party to go to that afternoon so I left Keith at home to clean the house. (I'm nice like that.) When I came home a couple hours later, the carpets were clean and Keith had a crazy look in his eye. He announced that he was leaving town and anyone that wanted to go with him was welcome to pack a bag and get ready. He needed some fresh air and a quick recharge of the batteries. He needed to get outta dodge and forget about his splinted finger.

He was headed to The Center of the Known Universe.

And for anyone that climbs rocks, that is of course Yosemite.

To be continued....

Kindergarten graduation

Oh my goodness....so much to catch up on! First up, kindergarten graduation.

Kindergarten has been so fun for Bennett this year. He LOVED his teacher, Ms. Donaldson, and it's been so fun to see how much he's grown in just one year! I was able to help in his classroom every other Tuesday so I got to know the kids in his class and it was fun to see kindergarten in action. It was a great year!

Graduation ceremony with his awesome teacher:

A picture with his crush, Michaela.

Michaela lives around the corner from us and several weeks ago, Bennett gave her a paper airplane he had made and decorated with hearts. I certainly remember my kindergarten crush but I'm freaking out a little that he's already old enough to care about girls! Eek!

After the graduation, Bennett was so excited to show Leah around the playground. After a good play session, I saw this and my heart skipped a beat.



Best friends. That right there was icing on my cake.

Dear Blog,

I know we haven't spoken in a while. It's not because of anything you did. I promise it's not you. It's me. Really. I needed to branch out a little and see other things. Like the beach for one. I needed to play the field and explore my options. I needed my space.

And in the end, blog, I've come to realize that we need each other. We're meant for each other, you and me.

So, I'm back.

With all my heart,
Andrea

OUCH.

We had our first medical emergency this week. I have been DREADING the moment since my firstborn was placed in my arms. Although, I guess I should be happy that it took almost six years to have to rush one of my kids to the hospital. It could have been so much worse!

The kids and I were all out in the front yard enjoying a gorgeous sunny day. Bennett and Leah alternated between playing with their bikes, the scooter, and a frisbee. The baby and I were sitting on the grass in the shade. Then I heard that yucky sound....crash......cry.

I looked up to see Bennett laying on the ground next to his bike on the other end of our circle. My heart stopped. I ran as fast as I could and as he lifted himself up, felt a huge sense of relief when I noticed that all his bones seemed to be at their correct angles. Whew! Even the thought of seeing a broken bone scares the daylights out of me. It didn't look any worse than a scraped knee. I helped Bennett up (a kind neighbor also came to the rescue and walked the bike home for us) and as I did, I noticed a big drop of blood on his shoe. Odd...... As I looked up I noticed a big scrape on his chin. Eek! Once I got home, I realized that this scrape was a little bigger than my bandaid box could handle and I started rooting around in Keith's doctor bag for some gauze pads and some tape. I think I was in denial here. Moments later, my cute friend Ann showed up for our scheduled playdate. She took one look at Bennett and pretty much scooted us out the door for the hospital.

Luckily, Keith was at the hospital and was wrapping up his morning clinic. When we arrived, he had a chair ready and waiting for us. (Bypassing the waiting room is one of the benefits of having an "in" with the doc!) He cleaned up the chin and we both realized what a bad cut it was--clear to the bone. He quickly got to work and put in a few stitches. Bennett was so SO brave! Having all that work done right in your face is really intimidating. But, I was SO grateful that Keith was able to help. He was so tender and knew just what to say to calm Bennett down. Keith is absolutely my hero.

Watching a movie--


Almost done!


Obviously, not the happiest kid but so glad his dad was his doctor!

One!!!

My baby turned one today. Happy Birthday cute Bryce!

I can't believe this was a year ago....


He has grown up way too fast! He has 5 teeth (which is four more than Leah had and five more than Bennett). He is not walking yet and I'm in no hurry for him to start. He is a super fast crawler through so I don't think he is missing too much. He is absolutely the sweetest little guy and I am totally smitten.

I did a terrible job of photo-documenting the opening of the presents. Pretty much Bennett and Leah opened everything. They had each picked out a little gift for Bryce and were so eager to rip into them. It's hard being a little sibling, no?

Being Sunday, we had to zip off to church but we decided to take the scenic route today.

Plus, we had to let Bryce take a spin in his new birthday gear.
Look, some things are just for fun and some things are purely necessary. Bike stuff falls in the necessary category--you can't start them too young! Doesn't he look so cute on that big bike???

The cake.... (please try to ignore any junk on the floor in the these pictures. I was busy baking, ok??)



There's just something so awesome about a one-year old getting to attack his birthday cake. It's pure comedy.









And after all THAT fun, we had to work off some calories. We ended the day with a bike ride. Bryce loves his new ride!

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby!

Paaartaaaay!!!

Happy Birthday to Keith!!! We partied pretty hard today to celebrate Keith's big day. First off, we were surprised to be able to spend the day with him as he had planned to fly out of town today to spend a weekend in Zion to run a 50 miler. But it was called off just yesterday afternoon due to unexpected snow on the trails. So, we started yesterday pretending that it was his birthday, then did the real deal replay today. Of course, I'm bummed that he didn't get to have his birthday bash as he had been planning for months, but I have been secretly (or not, since I'm admitting this in writing) happy to have him home on his birthday. :)

We got to have lunch with him--which caused both Bennett and Leah to declare this the best day of their lives! Those kids, man. We have some darn good ones. We also spent the day in party planning mode--a little shopping, a little wrapping, a little cake baking, a little freaking out. So. Much. Fun.

When Keith came home from work, he took us all out for pizza--which again made the heads of my two big kids nearly explode. Then we came home to a big german chocolate cake (by request) and a pile of presents for Keith.

See? Can't you feel the party in your bones? This was a good time!


Keith was lucky enough to score a sweet set of ninja action figures from Bennett, a stretchy rubber killer whale from Leah, and a sweet Irish hat from his parents living in Ireland.

And now, two awesome birthday related conversations with Bennett:

First:
As I was putting Bennett to bed last night, he could hardly contain his excitement on the eve of Keith's birthday. We talked about the day for a bit then he asked me what present I was giving to dad. I explained that I didn't have a present to wrap up because I was giving dad his trip to Zion. That had been his birthday gift, even though it didn't end up happening as he had planned. He looked at me with such compassion and said, "That's ok mom. You give a gift to dad every single day."

"What gift is that, Bennett?:

He tenderly touched my cheek and said, "your delicious dinners!"

Second:
As we were eating Keith's birthday cake, Bennett exclaimed: "Wow mom, you really put the hammer down on this cake!"

I must admit, I'm feeling pretty awesome now.


Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEITH!!!! You are the bomb!