Park Butte Lookout

Tuesday, as soon as the kids were secure on the bus, 

we drove to the mountains and hiked to the Park Butte fire lookout. 

Me, Jim, Roxanne, Vance.

We felt so close to Baker. 

So far this season we have practically touched her from the south side, north side, and east side. 

Tuesday we are going to the west side and will touch her actual glacier. 

See that cabin balancing on the rock? That's where we are going. 

The view! Wowee wow. 360 degrees. 

Also, walking around the cabin felt so precarious. You could see the ground hundreds of feet below you between the board cracks. squeal. 

There is so much to explore up there! We had to boogie back down in order to get to Evan's first football game. 

I'm going back and bringing my sleeping bag next time. 

To Orcas Island

Saturday we flew Joe's airplane to Orcas Island. 

I get very nervous about flying in a little airplane with a motor that sounds like a lawn mower. 

But they say it's safe - if the engine dies it becomes a glider! you get to glide gently down to probable death! 

But it was fine. And beautiful and fun. Lisa held my hand when it was time to land, and that was comforting and warm. 

Landing on Orcas was the most pretty. The sun was setting and the light was ambient. 

We walked to a restaurant to eat the most delicious pile of handmade pasta. 

You know what I will never do in my whole life? Fly an airplane. I will never. Even in the eternities forever and eternally forever, my soul will never get in an airplane and be in charge of flying it. 

Jim was talking on the radio to the tower or whoever is out there listening, and he was speaking another language. So much so, that I questioned, "was that you Jim just now on the radio?" it sounded kind of like him but foreign. I'm glad to have him around in the eternities if I ever need to fly somewhere. 

September Butterflies

Here's a Jim project: 

We need more garage space, so he's making a long custom shed on the side of our house.

Our hands are all the same size! 

Last day of water slides. It felt all wrong to go after school had started. 

One day Melissa came and read our natal charts. It's crazy how accurate it is. 

We had an alien in our house so NASA came and did tests.

Just kidding, Jim repainted the piano. It looks so good. You'll have to catch sneak peaks in other pictures in order to see the after, thanks!

The other day Avery was sad that I didn't buy all her old soccer pictures, so I went back to see if we could still order them. Look how little she was. 

This was her first day of seminary AND her first High School soccer game. 

A backpack in front, a backpack in back.

I drove to the away game, not expecting her to play as a freshman at all,

and there she was, a starter. She played the whole game. Every minute.

I don't think she will be playing as much once conference games start, but it has been so fun watching her games so far!

Bea is number 11. They were both so nervous, 

and both played so well. 

Man, she almost didn't stick with the team. We still have moments where she feels nervous or dreads going to practice, but yesterday she came home and was so excited at how much she is bonding with the Juniors and Seniors on her team. 

I have hatched a million butterflies in my stomach about it, and true to the process, things are starting to get easier and more fun. 

I knew it. I hoped it. 

Evan got braces! 

I'm over here hatching a million more butterflies for Evan. 

Tuesday he had his first football game. We got beat so so bad. 

But he didn't totally hate it. He played a lot and did well at shoving the other players around? Football is weird. 

Cute number 59.

Yesterday he came home from practice with a very sore butt. He landed on his tailbone and it hurts to sit and stand. I am giving it another day before I go get it x rayed. 

He said to me in tears last night: "I don't want to do football next year."

I love that he tried this new thing, but yeah, no pressure to continue with the football. 

I don't know. I guess I have a harder time trusting the process with Evan. I don't know why, but the butterflies are buzzing around a lot today. 

Every day after practice, the four boys come home and play more football in the back yard. 

Because she's braver than me, Lindsay got another puppy. 

This mean we will have FOUR german shepherds in our dog pack. 

Andrew and his wild imagination came up with a dog school and went over to the Dicksons and asked if they wanted to join. He came home excited that, yep, they signed up for his free dog school. 

He has the schedule down to the minute. 

My favorite is the class "not to bite". 

Because Andrew is in fourth grade and fourth grade is easy peasy, 

I have NOT been hatching any butterflies about him. There is no reason to.

UNTIL last night when I filled in for his soccer coach at his soccer practice and saw what a zoo it was. They split the two fourth grade teams into "the team that is good" and the "team of misfits and children who have never played". 

So I signed up to assistant coach and I am going to whip the team into shape. I love starting at level zero. They learn SO MUCH.

(The coach is my neighbor and she self reports not to know much about coaching soccer, so she welcomes the help). 

Jim is in Vegas training tonight. We have elementary and middle school open house and pick Avery up at 7:00 from practice.

So many great things happening! Even with the butterflies, I love it all. I love our strong, healthy bodies that do all the sports sports sports. 

The New Forest

Remember our Feather Moss Forest? 

The one they bulldozed like Fern Gully? 

Well, we got a second chance at a forest on the other end of our street. 

The entrance was blocked by blackberry bushes and impassible shrubs, but Dane cleared an opening to the foot of the forest.

Then me and Lindsay got to work. 

I wish we would have taken "before" pictures because it's easy to think this trail has always been there. 

There are no branches snagging at your hair, no spiderwebs, no "pokies" grabbing your skin.

Just a lovely meandering pathway throughout. But I promise you we worked hard to make it look this effortless. 

We start with Phase 1: deciding on a direction, a path of least resistance through the consuming forest. 

You want the trail to meander, but you have to work with whatever takes the least amount of clearing work. 

 I go in with my small clippers snipping and deciding on a good line. I lay ferns down as bread crumbs to remind me where I came from so that I don't get lost (I learned this the hard way! It's surprising how fast you lose your way when there isn't a clear trail.)

Then Phase 2: consists of Lindsay's next level clippers removing bigger branches in the way, clearing the trail by scraping debris aside with our feet. This phase is the most satisfying! I can't even convey how much I love this part with Lindsay. She yields her burley clippers and suddenly the pathway clears up and the trail takes shape. 

Phase 3: This phase never really ends. But it is the polishing of the trail. It is a constant upkeep, clipping here and there, walking the trail daily to keep it clear and trodden. Sometimes this is when we bring the saw and make changes to some of the bigger logs/branches. 

This is "Throne Tree", but it's also where Andrew brought in rocks and made it his "music studio". 

We use as many natural features to create doorways and portals and archways. 

So far we have close to 1 mile of trails back there! 

This is the Rainbow Log,

Part of the trail leads to this beautiful Fairy Tree. 

The branches reach down to the ground and engulf you in its little world. 

Bailey made a fairy circle with moss and mushrooms and beach rocks. 

The further into Fall we get, the less leaf coverage we have. Soon it will be skeletal fairy tree. 

This was us taking the kids for a Phase 3 rip around Shrek Swamp and the 4x4 Loop Trail that takes you back to the beginning of the trail. 

I am currently working on a new trail, leading east from Throne Tree. It's ready for phase 2 clearing as soon as Lindsay gets home from work. 

One day we were in Phase 1 striking a trail off of Shrek Swamp. We did NOT lay down ferns and we got so "lost". It took us an hour to find a way back to the trail.

We were a couple of moms in the forest bush whacking through branches, trying to get home. I had to go pick up sports kids soon, and Lindsay needed "to be on the couch acting casual by the time Reuben gets home from work." haha. 

Finally as we were pushing our way through slappy little branches, and Lindsay said "see how Koda gets through so easy? Let's get low like her", so we crouched low and made it through the wall of shrubs.

It makes me giggle thinking about it. A couple of moms so stuck, needing to get back, 

then "acting casual" when we finally made it out. 

This forest project is my favorite thing happening this Fall. I feel so...anxious? for my teen kids with all they have going on, and this forest is my zen place where I realize:

"It's ok. It's profoundly ok" -Thomas McConkie

Also: some neighbors HATE this opening to the green space. That's a whole drama I don't even want to talk about. People are so weird. Why would you spend energy on being angry about your neighborhood community making walking trails in the green space?