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Wayne left us at church to join Burke to drive to D&D. I told the girls Dad was going on his “playdate”. I had prayed God would bring me someone to have lunch with. In walked Carolyn, Steve, and the boys. We got pizza by the slice. The boys are so hospitable. They were racing to see who would help me with the girls.

We bid our friends adieu and headed to home for naps. It was nice to have all the chores done. I worked hard on Saturday night to get things done. I finished Minority Report. It’s a fun movie.

When we woke up, I called Phil and we met Johanna for a playdate at the park. I drove and brought the girls bikes. Sara really improved in her pedaling. Laura liked being pushed on her trike. Laura did an infinite loop up the green bars that I had to spot her on and down the twisty purple, “big kids” slide.

Dinner was at Angela’s. I got to see baby Tarran. It’s hard to believe he’s almost 4 months. Owen made a homemade lasagne and kids picnicked on the ground. The kids finally used our huge bin of sidewalk chalk.

This concert from a former punk rocker turned kid rocker has been on our calendar since early summer. We had front row seats thanks to Cindy’s organization. Cindy said it was entertaining, “even for adults” and she was right.

We started with a sugar rush at Family Donuts with our friends. 6 kids under 6 filled the place.

This is a weekend tradition for our friends and I had been wanting to join them. I think I’m still a Top Pot fan, but I love a well made donut from any source.

We got to the Edmonds Center for the Arts early. It was a fun venue for the concert, cozy and comfortable. The kids played outside in the wet grass.

The concert was sponsored by Rice Krispie’s. The sponsorship was fairly blatant. They did have a fun time making a tamborine filled with cereal. Laura liked shaking the tamborine in the concert.

Cindy got 2nd row seats. The older girls had fun being fans. Ralph must have made eye contact with me 3 times. It’s nice being in the front. Unfortunately, Sara took 3 trips to the restroom and we had to pass one woman all those times.

It was neat to see how Laura responded to the concert. She was tired and sucked her thumb the whole time. Her eyes were wide with excitement. She’d clap at the end of songs with her thumb still in her mouth. She liked shaking her tamborine. My favorite time in the concert was snuggling with Laura. It happens rarely these days and she was so sweet.

At the end of the concert, the entire audience was invited to go up on the stage. The girls all went up. We stood by the drums and danced around in a circle. We have 2 Ralph CDs which we’ve been playing all week. He is a fun entertainer. Interestingly, his voice (which is good) is more enthralling in concert than on the CD. It was hard not to stand up and dance. It was just good manners for me not too since I’d block kids. It was a fun “first” rock concert for the girls.

Toddler anguish. That didn’t happen today. We had an incredibly pleasant day. The weather is nice and cool, like air conditioning.

The facts:
We ate breakfast at 7:30am reservation at Alexandra’s. We had a nice waitress who apologized for things she didn’t do wrong and kept asking if we wanted seconds of things. I tried the strawberry yogurt parfait, but ended up adding a piece of French toast Laura didn’t eat. There was a pseudo sticky roll that was amazing.

Deentrophication from yesterday’s travels commenced along with the traditional walk by around the trout pond with bread to feed the fish. Laura belts out belly level laughs with this occurs with Poppa. There have been 4 trips so far.

Driving up the mountain about 10am. Stop at Narada Falls for bathroom break. Laura slept a bit. Sara enjoyed the scenery. Otherwise, onto Paradise. For a Saturday, a poor start from the perspective of parking. Wayne and I lucked out near the new visitors center. Mom and Dad had to park far down the mountain. Paradise on a beautiful September Saturday is loved to death by people. We just watched the cars zip past during breakfast.

Sunscreen. Bug spray (mosquitos were vicious). Hiking boots. Stroller. Baby pack. Sun hats. Sunglasses. Sanity. Check. Time to hike? Time to lunch. Based on yesterday’s experience with toddler anguish, we decided to get lunch. The dilemma was that lunch was half way down the mountain with Mom’s car. Since we didn’t want to go get it, we opted for the expensive and less optimal “park food”. It’s like buying airport food. You get what you get and you pay a lot for it. Regardless, it made our later endeavors successful.

We sat on wood hewn chairs in the shadow of the condemned old Henry Jackson Visitor Center and let the kids eat what they would. Chips, fine. Refined white bagel, great. Sip of coke…ok…if it appeases. Because of this compromise, we had an amazing rest of the day.

By the climbers dorm, we entered the Nisqually Vista trail, like we had done when Sara was young like Laura. We brought the stroller as an insurance policy against toddler anguish. Wayne carried Laura in the backpack and Sara straggled along reluctantly. Horse stories from Wayne and polywogs Nanna found kept Sara going up and down the 1.4 mile loop. We stopped for a long time at the overlook. We kept Laura in the stroller to keep her safe. I had to watch Sara carefully since the drop off was sharp and fatal.

Wayne pointed out on the drive down that National Parks are wilderness and intrinsically dangerous places. I think it’s true.

Paradise’s rainbow meadows were filled with lupine, skunk grass, orange Indian Paintbrush, and Queen Anne’s lace. We didn’t get too much chance to photograph. Dad followed slowly with his tripod. He probably has sublime photos.

It was tough pushing the laden strollers up the steep slopes. In general, I had a great time. Exertion, but great weather.

Of course, Laura, the one looking like she was going to keel over with exhaustion, didn’t sleep and babbled on the way home. Sara rested. We stopped at Longmire to give Laura a break and get a last gasp of Rainier. Laura and, later, Sara did the “rock walk”, walking on the large flat stones that lined the paths. Dad and I started the trend of getting Nestles ice cream bars from the grocery. It was very refreshing. Mom, as always, provided refreshing cold apple juice for the snack.

I took both girls for a late afternoon walk in the field by Alexander’s. It was nice to let the girls roam with a longer rein. We had sword fights with long grass, threw dried cut grass, laid in the grass, danced in circles, played in the pond with grass and sticks and walked. It was wonderful.

Split dinner. Parents went to Alexandra’s at 5:30pm and we switched at 7pm. Ours was a romantic affair with nice talk and great food. Brie appetizer, lime chicken soup, raspberry vinaigrette greens, steak, cherry and port wine lamb chops, mile high mud pie to share. Internet connection in the common room with matching iPhones reading blogs. Full moon walking across the field thinking romantic thoughts. Wayne falls in a hole and twists his ankle. The date stops. Sleeping.

It was the best of times and the worst of times. This sums up my life with toddlers.

The facts:
Eating started the day. A 7:30am reservation. Ham and swiss quiche. Yummy!

We drove off to Ohanapecosh. We stopped at Box Canyon for a bathroom break. Again, the day was perfect. Laura awoke from her nap and proceeded to run away from me in the parking lot.

Grove of the Patriarches, right outside of Ohanapecosh, was the destination. A 0.4 mile hike one way into deep, old forests with huge trees. For a family that has hiked Rainier a lot, this trail had an air of anticipation since none of us had been on it before. We paused at a picnic table and thought about lunch. It was 11:30am and we were still stuffed from breakfast. Laura started on Wayne’s back, cackling as she was loaded up. All signs were good.

The start of Toddler Anguish was my innocent suggestion that we let Laura walk. The trail had some edges, but was pretty nice and easy. I tried to get Laura to hold my hand and refused to let her walk when she wouldn’t. This brought on yells of anguish. We returned her to the backpack only to discover that she could throw off her straps. In her tantruming, she started slinging her weight around dangerously.

Mom and Dad were not within site. We stopped and just held Laura on a log. Crying continued. People passed and looked. One person oddly asked if taking a photo would help. I politely declined that offer, not saying what I thought. Crying continued. Eventually Mom reappeared. We decided we should have eaten lunch. We recalled the experience at the Puyallup Fair a week before.

So we didn’t see the Grove. Wayne carried an empty backpack and a screaming toddler in his arms. Laura screamed at me like she was being ripped from my arms thought I was within 10 feet the whole time. People stared. Laura cried. I was just starting to sink into the spirit of the place too.

Lunch was indeed the answer. We picnicked by the car. Laura grew happy again. Dad walked off to see a bridge down the road. He came back with news of redemption. He had scouted out a quiet part of the Ohanapecosh river with stones and sand and water.

We flowed into that direction. When I took out the swimsuits, Laura cackled again to my delight. Dad carried Laura down the steep trail. Poor Wayne, tired from wrangling girls, requested alone time and fled back to the Grove. He completed the trail and said it was a spiritual place (when you’re not listening to screaming). Dad went further down stream and photoed for an hour. Mom hovered nearby reading and intervening while I watched the girls.

This was one of my favorite times on the trips with the kids. We made a pool by the waters edge out of rocks and logs. We then made sand/mud/rock walls on the logs. I walked up to my knees, but was reluctant to get into the swift mid water. Laura followed me at one point and slipped and I had to scoop her up. The girls moved onto making log sculptures in the sand. Sara worked on several branches balancing like an engineer. She even had a ta da moment of balance. The girls tried to make a lean-to with the logs by the rocks.

The kids were tired after this. We walked back and cleaned up. We got in the car and headed to Paradise. Both girls slept. The Paradise Inn didn’t open for dinner till 5:30pm. We waited in line, but probably could have walked in at any time. The girls did great at dinner. I’ve had amazing meals there in the past, but missed tonight. I tried the elk roulade, but should have done the coq au vin. I got to sample everyone’s dish and got a good sense of the menu (avoid seafood on a mountain no matter how inspired the sauce). I skipped desert to change Laura. I happened there were no changing tables in the public bathroom, so I had to change her on a bench. Laura thought the whole walk was fun.

We drove to the lower parking lot by the Henry Jackson vistor center to see the sunset. It was gorgeous with a moon rise over the Tatoosh range. The whole experience mirrored our event last year. We got there a little too late. Wayne and I exchanged kidlet duties.

Finally, the drive home and bed at Alexandra’s.

The days are beautiful, Seattle at it’s pinnacle; like penance for august. My parent’s visit is ending. It heralds the end of summer like so many other things: the hint of leaves changing colors; the start of Mom’s group; spiders coming inside because is the cold.

In the links section on the main page there is a new link to our best pictures from 2007. Yes I know 2008 is more than half over, but with two kids it is hard to find time to distill thousands of photographs down to 15. Lightroom helps a lot, but it still takes effort.

Below is one that did not make the cut. Taken at Chesterman’s Beach in Tofino BC.

My Granma used to say this. I think she’d use in the context of checking out a new place. I use it to describe what Dad does to exit a vacation residence. We’ve been waiting 10 minutes strapped into seats waiting for dad to complete his search of the house. Dad missed a toy last year at Zoe’s. Like the Olympics, Dad’s competing.

It’s Saturday morning now. Everyone is bugging out to the beach. I put Laura down for a nap. So I get to hang out for awhile until she wakes up. Low tide is coming up. But oddly, I’m ok with the opportunity to pause. I’m even leaving the dishes for the moment.

Uh oh…Wayne says Laura’s babbling. I guess I’ll be forced to have fun versus journaling about the fun and adventure we had yesterday.

Friday was Wayne’s day. He took our most sun drenched day and declared it kite day. We drove the hour north to the International Kite Festival in Long Beach, WA. Wayne said it’s always been a dream of his to go there. The visions of hundreds of kites in the air will stay with me for my life time. It was truly beautiful.

We didn’t arrive in Long Beach until 11am. It started as festivals usually do, the race for a space. We were lucky in that we got a parking area close to the boardwalk. It was nice to be able to go back and forth to the car. We started with a shake down trip to get a lay of the land. Our first view was of a 20+ stacked kite stretching up above the dunes, reaching the morning moon. It seemed surreal as the wind blew. We knew we were in festival land when the food smelled fried. Fried oysters, calamari, salmon, cod, fries, etc.

The girls were hungry so we had kettle korn. It was my parents intro to such a thing and they liked it. It fended off the munchies for a while and kept Laura (who didn’t nap on the ride up) occupied in the stroller. We walked up on the board walk to watch the view. There was a fun announcer explaining the different kites. I got to see kite ballet. There was an 80+ man who flew 3 kites at the same time. He was so entertaining that he took attention from the rest of the festival and had to be asked to stop flying.

Wayne took the girls down to the beach to watch a kids fling about Cat and the Hat (which Sara has been reading here at the beach house). Mom and I pushed the stroller back to the cars to procure lunch. We picnicked at the festival area and Sara got cotton candy (Laura’s first).

This is where we all split up. Mom took Laura on the Discovery trail in the dunes to let her sleep. Sara, Dad, and I wandered among the kites while Wayne went down to the beach to fly a kite and talk to other kities. Dad drifted in and out of our company, photographing as inspired. Sara and I watch a huge crab kite consume some tourists and helped them out. Wayne took Sara to the beach to fly kites for awhile and I got to photograph with Dad. That was nice.

Finally, we wandered down to the beach. Sara and I had lots of fun playing in the surf. The girls had all worn bathing suits all day for this time. We didn’t get that wet (the water was cold) but it was fun to get splashed. Laura woke up and Dad helped Mom get the stroller on the beach. Laura saw the sand and started running around in circles and cackling with glee.

The tide started to come in and we decided to call it a day. We all had battle wounds from the day. Sara has a rash on her leg from falling in some prickle grass. I got sunburned behind my knees and on my nose. Laura had a bad heat rash on her neck. Wayne just felt “bone tired”.

Despite all that, we decided to do a town run. We really wanted to go to Cannon Beach town on Thursday afternoon, but ended up exploring Ecola State Park instead. So we took our opportunity. We didn’t arrive until 5pm. We started with dinner at Pizza a fetta at 231 Hemlock. It was pretty good. Laura was silly tired and kept climbing on me. It was a little hole in the wall and good for the kids. Geppetto’s Toy store was open. What a cute little place. We found “sea cucumbers” for the girls and bath animals for Laura. Sara got a horse set complete with grass, tree, and corral.

We tried to get to a kite store, but they were all closed. We found an idyllic playground instead. It was right next to the Cannon Beach Christian Conference center. I got some brochures. Don’t know if I’ll go, but it looks very cute.

We got home tired. Wayne unpacked the stuff and I took the girls upstairs for a bath. We were having such a great time, trying out all the new toys. Laura was relaxed, too relaxed. She pooped in the tub. Out everyone came. Laura started shrieking as I wrestled the poop infested toys out of her hand and scooped the kids up and headed for showers downstairs. It took awhile for the shrieking to stop. The kids weren’t as enamored with the shower, but we eventually got them clean. I put Laura to bed at that point. No one wanted to clean up the poop in the bath. It sat there for about an hour before I girded my loins and dealt with it.

Eventually I slept.

“to be or not to be”. Dad and Sara have been bantering this around. Dad says it’s better to be.

Laura is saying more words. Beach, hat, and Za za for Sara. Elmo= elno in laura language. 2 words together is elno bugs, lw’s favorite episode. She loves reading her bug book. Ants are fascinating enough to say. She also says crab, interestingly.

Friends
Sara made a friend at Hug Point making castles in the sand. She made one Romeo and Juliet style on our balcony with the adjoining beach house with Dana 7yo. At ecola state park, Sara asked me to find her a “4yo girl who would play chase and be my friend.”. High expectations. She played chase with her Mom instead.

The weather is fickle. The sun is pouring through the windows making the upper room hot for the first time this trip. I’ve been following Mom around closing windows as she opens them due to the cold. This morning was supposed to be “clearing”.

Dad convinced us to go for a hike. I was reluctant. I wanted to hang on our own beach. Dad took us to Hug Point, just south of Cannon Beach. Sara and I got out to use the restrooms and got drenched. The downpour was impressive. It soaked through my jacket. All us Powers were dressed in full rain gear. Most everyone else came out after the rain was done in normal clothes. Laura was excited to play in the sand. She insisted on following me around the point. Sara made a friend over feathers and sand. The boys bonded over waterfall photography.
We headed home for lunch.

The afternoon hike was to Ecola State Park. Wayne and I thought we would go to Cannon Beach and explore, but Ecola was deep in a old growth forest. I was on kid duty trying to make sure no kids fell off a cliff. I had the best time with the kids in a little hollow away from the cliffs while Wayne photoed. I played hide and seek with Laura and Sara. It was kind of idyllic. We decided to head home after that.

This was Dad’s day. 2 nature areas at once.