2014

the smithsonian, washington, dc, february

the lincoln memorial, washington, dc, march

suisun marsh hike, april

decorating easter eggs, fairfield, ca april

backyard egg hunt, fairfield, ca, april

bryn is born, april

granny comes to help, may

torrey pines hike, san diego, ca, august

lake tahoe, ca august

katschke family reunion lake tahoe, ca august

meteor crater, az, august

world of coke, atlanta, ga, august

world of coke, atlanta, ga, august

tybee island, ga, september

aligator, everglades national park, fl, september

aligator, everglades national park, fl, september

crocodile, everglades national park, fl, september

glass bottom boat, pennekamp state park, key largo, fl, september

turtle hospital, marathon key, fl, september

siesta key, fl, september

hogwarts, universal studios orlando, fl, september

french quarter, new orleans, la, september

carlsbad caverns national park, nm, september

saguaro national park, az, september

sutro bath ruins, san francisco, ca, november

temple run, oakland, ca, december

Neglected

This is what happens when you wear your hair up every single day:

One day you wake up and you've got really long hair that you didn't realize you were growing out. It finally got too long to even put up properly, so when my sister's sister-in-law was visiting for Mother's Day I asked her to cut it for me. She gave me a really great cut that just falls into place. She is a genius. I feel one hundred pounds lighter!

Speech, Speech!

Sage turned 4 on Monday. Birthdays are not much of a formal event in our family: just a few family members over for dinner,cake and presents. So I was surprised, while straightening up before the afore mentioned family members arrived, to find the following speech on the coffee table:

Birthday Speech
(by Jensen)

We are here to celebrate a girl, named Sage, turn 4. Before the annual Sage-opening-of-the-presents begins, I would like to make a little speech. Sage was born 4 years ago. What a cute baby she was! Last year, many important things happened to Sage like the trips to Idaho, Utah, and all the National Parks Trip. That does not mean we will not go on other important trips. I believe that Sage should be honored in all ways. Her birthday is a landmark in Katschke history. As she grows older and bigger her character grows, too. She goes with the flow most of the time, but she can be pretty stubborn when she wants to be. We all love, like, and enjoy Sage. Will everybody who loves, likes, and enjoys Sage please raise their hand. Sage, look around at all the people who love you, who like you, and who enjoy you. I would like to invite Sage up to the stand to say a few words to her "fans."

Jensen delivered her speech with remarkable skill then invited Sage up for a "Q and A" afterward. I'm not sure if the speech was intended to honor Sage or upstage her, but it was a sweet and fitting tribute to Sage's fourth year.

Washington State

The other day Ken and I were planning our next family trip, and I realized I never finished posting about our last big National Parks trip. So . . . After leaving Oregon we headed for Olympic National Park on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Olympic is such a large park, we decided to concentrate on just seeing the rain forest. The Hoh Rain forest is amazing with moss hanging from the trees and the ground covered in ferns.

Zaddock in the Hall of Mosses

The children with a fallen tree

Resting from a long hike along the Hoh River

Besides hiking in the Hoh River Valley, we drove through Forks and over to see the Sea Stacks on the beach where Jensen and Zad performed a innovative play called, “Boston Jane and Philadelphia John.” It consisted of Zaddock pushing Jensen off the end of a large piece of driftwood ordering her to “walk the plank,” which she did after giving her last words which were “Remember what you said about the seven seas, there are actually eleven seas, not including oceans.” No wonder John wanted to get rid of such a know-it all.

The cold winds on the coast

Jane walks the plank

The rocky coastline

The Hoh Rain Forest was also a delightful place to camp because the sites were grassy, instead of dusty, and the temperature hardly dipped at night. The only bad part was the tent was still soaking wet from overnight dew when we had to break camp at first light. Since we were up so early we were able to catch a few of the Roosevelt Elk grazing in the campsite. We waited until we reached Port Angeles to eat breakfast, and we were rewarded for our patience by finding Cafe Garden. The food was outstanding, the waitstaff gracious (even though we were a little under dressed and hadn't showered for three days), and the girls loved the gardens on the grounds. Highly recommended.

Breakfast for Edward Cullen*

Breakfast for the humans (at Cafe Garden)

After breakfast we continued on to Spokane via Seattle and a ferry across the Puget Sound. Ken and I thought this would make a great memory for the children, but they seemed to have forgotten it by dinner time. While crossing the sound the ferry stopped for a memorial and let out three loud blasts. We were on the top deck directly below the horn, it was so loud that Declan began to cry.

On the ferry with Seattle in the distance

We spent that night at my sister Lisa's house in Spokane. It was so good to see her and her husband David, but we forgot to take any pictures until late that night after Sage had already fallen asleep. Since we so rarely get to see Lisa, Ken insisted we take a picture with all of the kids, so he hauled Sage out of bed and propped her up next to me “Weekend at Bernie’s” -style. She slept through the whole thing.

Lisa with me and the kids

*We had not read the Twilight series before visiting the Olypmic Peninsula and were completely unaware we were in Cullen territory at the time. It was great fun, however, to read the books a few months later and realize that we had been to all of these small, out of the way places.

Why We Love Zad

He loves bracelets, the rubber Lance Armstrong kind. This is how his wrist usually looks.

He also loves watches; he has four of them.

The other night we picked Ken up from the airport when he was returning from a one day business trip. He was still dressed in his suit. When Zad saw him he asked, “Were you at church?" Ken responded, “No.” “Were you at a funeral?” “No.” “Then why are you wearing handsome clothes?”

We were climbing Watchman at Crater Lake, and Ken had just told Jensen we were halfway there. But we were on the way up, so I explained to Jensen we were only half of half way there. She brilliantly replied, “We are a quarter of the way there.” Zad overhearing all this responded, “I don’t think so, it’s still a long way. I bet we are only five dollars there.”

For all his male tough guy, rough and tumble, shoot 'em up play he still likes to sleep with the light on, and we often wake up to him in our bed.

He'll play tea party and dress up with the girls. And he loves to dance.

He has a sound effect for everything.

For these and a million other unique Zaddock moments, we love him and life wouldn't be the same without him.

Happy Birthday, kiddo!

Na'pali Coast

So I mentioned that we hiked out to the crest of one of the ridges of the Na’pali coast, today we got to see this fascinating coastline from the water. We took Captain Andy’s Zodiac boat tour as recommended by the Staples. This was a high quality adventure. Our captain, Captain Matt, and his first mate, Lisa, were very knowledgeable and friendly. The ocean was clear blue and smooth as glass, our captain said it was the smoothest day of the year. The Zodiac boat glided over the water with hardly a bump. We stopped to view a couple pods of spinner dolphins that swam and jumped right along side our boat. We saw several see turtles and sea birds up close as well.

We went the entire length of the coast line stopping to take the boat right into several sea caves. We were able to dock at an archaeological site where ancient Hawaiians lived along this rocky, steep shore. We snorkeled there, which I enjoyed much more than I had anticipated. Then they fed us a fabulous hot lunch and gave us a guided tour of the site. It’s amazing that people lived in this narrow shore among these huge cliffs, but it’s so beautiful you can see why they did.

Do you see King Kong's face?

Spinner dolphins

The beaches gets swallowed up by high winter surf. We were there just before the swells arrived.

Ridge after ridge after ridge.

Water fall

Ken and I inside a sea cave which has an open top.

A waterfall inside a sea cave.

After the boat trip we started making our way along the Eastern Shore to the North Shore. We stopped to view a few beaches, but continued on to arrive at our hotel in Princeville just at sunset.

The view of Hanalei Bay from our hotel.