The Olympic Peninsula

We've been home for a week and I haven't posted any pictures! Bad me! I have all sorts of great excuses if you'll accept them.....

Anyway, we finally took a short vacation with the WHOLE family! We've had lots of shorter vacations with one or more of us missing but this one was for us all!

For several years we've been talking about heading back to Washington's Olympic National Park and the peninsula area. So this year we did it!

Our trip started with us driving and then taking the ferry to Port Townsend and camping in the Old Fort Townsend campground - in the rain! No rain for 29 days in one of the rainiest parts of the state, and it rains the day we get there! Camping in the rain isn't much fun but we made ourselves cozy by eating cookies and playing Yahtzee in our tent. The kids didn't mind the rain as it brought out the banana slugs that are so popular on the peninsula!

Slug kissing!

Our rainy campsite

We got up early the next morning (in the rain), broke camp and took off towards Sequim, WA and the Dungeness Spit. The Spit is 5 miles long and has a lighthouse at the very tip. We didn't walk all 5 miles but we did spend most of the day out on the beach doing some wave jumping and beachcombing. The day was perfect (not rain) and sunny.

Dylan built us a rock sculpture that we took our picture by. The rock towers were everywhere on this beach. It was fun to watch Dylan in action!

See our Streeter sculpture right in front?

We played Yahtzee again this night but this time it was in front of the fire and with roasted marshmallows!

The next day we started out at the Olympic Game Farm. This is a drive through zoo. The animals are mostly rescued animals, though some have been in tv shows, ads and movies. Many of them are so time they come right up to your car to eat bread out of your hands! Fun but a bit eerie! Elk are really big!

These big guys were doing tricks for the bread we were feeding them. They'd sit up and wave!

The zebra was my favorite!

That afternoon we went up to Hurricane Ridge. We hiked and sat in on a ranger talk.

We spent the night in Forks at the Forks Motel. It felt so good to shower!!!I did miss the camping, though. Forks, WA is the setting for the book and movie series Twilight, by Stephanie Meier. The whole town (which is very small!) has a Twilight theme. I couldn't believe how much had changed since the last time I'd been there.

We gave in to peer pressure and had our picture taken in front of the high school where Bella and Edward (the main characters in Twilight) went to school. I refused to have my picture taken in Bella's vest at the hardware store where she worked!

We spent the next day at the beaches in and around Forks and La Push. Rialto Beach was our favorite. Again, we spent several hours on the beach. Dylan loved jumping the waves and getting really wet! Lyndsi wasn't quite as thrilled about it. She walked beyond the high tide line the whole time!

Rialto Beach is a beautiful undeveloped and natural beach. Lots of driftwood, shells and rocks. One section of the rock is called hole in the wall. Once you go through the hole, you're in a new world full of tide pools.

Hole in the wall and a green sea anenome

This move scared me a bit!

The Hoh Rianforest was our final big stop before heading home. The morning started out grey and rainy but the day transformed itself into a beautiful sunny day!

Hoh Rainforest

The kids being sworn in as Junior Rangers

We drove through Seattle to see Robyn and Kim before we headed home. It's always so comfy and homey when we vistit.

Vacation is over and school starts this week. I'll miss my lazy mornings but I do enjoy my job. Lyndsi will be in soccer and dance this year and Dylan will be doing soccer. Both kids are signed up for their first year of piano lessons. Another busy year!

August News

Whew! Time's flying by! We go back to school in a mere 3 short weeks and I'm not ready! It's so nice to have a large chunk of time off in the summer and no matter how long that chunk is, I always feel panicked in August. I still have so much to do!


The month of August is always special to Steve and I because it's our anniversary month. We got married 13 years ago on August 3rd. We always try to plan something special for the two of us to do, even if it's just dinner out or a movie. This year we went to dinner with 2 other lovely couples, some of our best friends. Amy and Jeff were celebrating their 14th anniversary, also on the 3rd, and Dennis and Julia both have birthdays in August. We had a great time together, as always!

Dylan began horseback riding lessons last summer and we were able to squeeze in 3 lessons this summer. His final lesson was Wednesday morning. He had a great lesson as he was given the chance to ride solo and to try his hand at the barrels. We may have a cowboy on our hands as tonight he wanted to ride the mechanical bull at the rodeo! He assures me that he does not want to ride the real thing, he just wants to play around on the fake ones!

Dylan on Camilla

Trying out the barrels - none in the picture - sorry!

Future bullrider?????

The Omak Stampede and World Famous Suicide Race is an annual event in Omak (which is our neighboring town). Thursday night is always family night - which means it's cheap night! - so we usually try to take the kids to the rodeo on Thursday night. Tonight was no exception. The Cheeseman family also had tickets so we teamed up with them for a night at the Stampede Grounds. We started by paying for the kids to ride 2 rides and then had some dinner before the rodeo started.

This rodeo is an NRCA rodeo but has always felt more small townish because of the rickety arena we used to sit in. Tonight was a bit different. The arena of days past was torn down and rebuilt into a much larger and more comfortable arena! I missed the wooden benches and the quaintness of our old seats but sure liked the comfort of these new ones! Jeff and Steve tried out the new beer garden and gave it two thumbs up so all in all, the rebuild is a hit!

The kids got all cowboyed up for the evening. Lyndsi is wearing one of my shirts from my grade school days! Max (Dylan's friend) and Dylan are goofy more often than they are serious!

We'll be attending 2 parades over the weekend in honor of the Stampede and Robyn, Kim and Erin will be here Saturday for the rodeo.

Max and Dylan contemplating which ride to go on first.

I haven't shared anything about our trip to Albuquerque and Grandma Cleland's memorial service. My lack of sharing isn't due to lack of sentimentality but rather the opposite. I've been trying to come up with just the right words to use when I described my grandma. Nothing seems perfect! I've come to the conclusion that my grandmother was everything you'd want a grandma to be. She was loving, attentive, doting, sincere, fun and, in my mom's words, "a little bit naughty". What more can a person want! The service was simple and lovely, complete with a swift but wicked wind and thunderstorm - just want Grandma would have wanted! It was held at the grave site. My grandma will be buried between the two most special people in the world to her, my grandpa and my cousin, Dustin. Grandma is in her heaven. I am happy for her but missing her all the same.

As funerals seem to be, our few days in Albuquerque felt a bit like a family reunion. All my aunts, uncles and cousins were there. I met several cousins I'd never seen before and the kids met more than that! Steve and my dad were missing from the celebration, as well as my cousin's wife, but every family was represented.

Because we didn't leave Albuquerque until later on Thursday, my mom and I were able to get the kids off to Old Town, one of my favorite little areas of the city.

Nana and the kids at Old Town - San Felipe Church

The kids hamming it up in their jean jackets while waiting in the Albuquerque airport.

Busy weekend ahead and a busy few weeks and then a busy few months. Before we know it, Halloween will have passed and Thanksgiving will be in the near future. Then Christmas and New Year's and 2010 will be upon us! But, I jump ahead (I told you I start to panic this time of year!).....

13 Years

Happy Anniversary, Steve! I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am to have found you. You and I have created a life together that I could only dream of before I met you. I love you!

One Class Down!

One class down, 10 more to go..... Yep, I've completed one class and started another in my Master's program. Yeah! Only 19 more months!

This second class is fun - I made paper, casted objects from that paper, painted, drew, sketched - wow! I've discovered that I'm not so fond of the sketching but I loved everything else. Next month we are creating sculptures and masks. And yes, I'm actually learning something from all this!

When I got home, Steve had a surprise for me. Check out the vanity in our bedroom. We have a strange set up where the sink to the master bath is in our bedroom. I've been trying to figure out how to make it less bathroomy while still keeping the essential sink. I'm thinking it's turning out well! The rest of the bedroom is pretty, too, but the bed wasn't made when I took the pictures!

The kids and I are off to Albequerque this week for my Grandma's memorial service. She passed away several months ago but the service was postponed until we could come. It'll be nice to see everyone, but, once again, the circumstances could be better.

A Fun Change of Plans

I should have been getting ready for a HUGE yard sale today. But, I wasn't! I was playing with hummingbirds! So much fun!! My friend, Julia, called me this morning and asked if a graduate student could come and trap and band hummingbirds at our house as they hadn't had any luck at hers. Of course I said yes! What a fabulous experience! Claire set a simple trap made from light netting and a string and as the hummingbirds flew in to take a drink she slowly lowered the netting around them. It was interesting watching the little birds try to process this new development at their watering hole!

The hummingbird trap

Once the birds were in the net, Claire gently caught them in her hand and placed them in a small bag. In the bag, the birds could buzz their wings but couldn't really fly. The bag was just to keep the birds safe until Claire was ready to band their legs.

Can you even imagine the size of the bands necessary to use on a hummingbird? Teensy weensy! Before banding the birds, Claire weighed and measured them and checked for the amount of fat on their bodies. Their skin is see through! The fat shows up as yellow under the skin of the hummingbird. Very cool! I think she may have also recorded several other things but I'm not sure what else she was looking for. After that she'd place a tiny numbered band around the ankle of the bird and then released it.

Checking out the feathers

Dylan releasing a juvenile male Calliope hummingbird.

When you handle a hummingbird, you are supposed to lay it on its back because it confuses them. Sounds mean doesn't it! When you are ready to release the hummer you put it in this position as well and then when it realizes it's free, off it goes! Steve, Dylan and Lyndsi were as intrigued by the whole show as I was!

After a couple of hours at our house, I took Julia and Claire to a hummingbird nest some of my friends had found a couple of weeks ago. The eggs have hatched and Claire was hoping to band the babies. As it turns out, the babies were too little to be handled so we just watched the mama feed and warm them. The babies couldn't have been more than an inch and a half long and that mama shoved her beak right down their throats to give them their lunches! Baby hummingbirds look like big black maggots with a few feathers but boy were they cute! Did you know that hummingbirds eat insects as well as nectar and they feed their babies primarily insects? Something I learned today!

It's hard to see but there's a mama humming bird on her nest. If you look real closely, you can see her long beak sticking up in the air.

Unfortuately, I never got the whole story out of Claire as to what she was looking for. It has something to do with the migratory path of female Calliope hummingbirds and Claire will be back to this area to check again in a couple of weeks. I'm so glad she was so kind as to allow us to hang out with her today!

Look What Steve's Been Doing For Me!

He has taken off the popcorn ceiling, removed the dirty carpet, texturized and painted the ceiling, painted the walls and will be replacing the floor, putting in a new vanity and sink and remaking my bedroom into something I may never want to leave! We've never even painted the master bedroom in any house we've lived in so this is so much fun! Our room is unique in that the sink from the bathroom is in the bedroom. Rather than make our bedroom look so bathroomy, I bought a beautiful vessel sink and vanity. I hope it all turns out as pretty as I think it will!

Guess I should get a little sleep before the yard sale tomorrow. Yes, it's still on, despite my day of fun. I just won't be as organized or as rested as I was hoping I'd be!

Fourth of July Weekend

....started early this year! We had a surprise visit from the Bartletts on Thursday evening. Brett, Heather, Tatum and Evan used to live in Okanogan but moved away 5 years ago. We have remained friends and have enjoyed seeing each other several times over the last few years.

Dylan and his buddy, Max were eagerly awaiting Evan's arrival as all three are the same age and have very similar interests. They have a good time together.

Lyndsi loves hanging out with the big girls, Tatum and Aidan O'Connor. Aidan lives in Okanogan and she and Tatum have remained friends through the years. The two middle schoolers graciously allow Lyndsi to follow them around.

Brett and Heather are always fun guests to host and we look forward to their visits.

So, why, you may be asking, did I say this was a surprise visit? I was expecting them on Friday! No worries - This family comes prepared! They brought a lovely salmon, caught the day before, and a dinner suggestion and we had a fabulous meal complete with wine. Yum!

Grudge Croquet

You haven't played croquet until you've played by Dennis' rules! Grudge Croquet is an annual Fourth of July tradition at the O'Connor home. Only the most competitive and skilled dare play this game! Dennis is a master at setting traps and a stickler for rule following. Balls are thrown across the yard due to cheating. Nope - I don't play. I tried one year and decided I just don't have the drive necessary to be a grudge croquet player! This year's winner was Jeff Cheeseman - Congratulations to him!

Dennis sits alone - watching for that wayward soul who might think it's profitable to cheat!

In addition to croquet, Dennis and Julia prepare food that we all supplement and we eat to our hearts' content. Before heading home we were also treated with a "safe and sane" fireworks display. The kids love it all!

Again this year, our neighbors, the Baums, lit fireworks after we returned home. The kids and Brett B. watched as Steve and I took care of poor

Coco

Unfortunately, our cute bunny became ill while we were enjoying our evening. We came home to find him lethargic and dehydrated. He was a mess and and had also made a mess on our bedroom floor so while I attended to him, Steve cleaned up the floor.

Bunnies develop problems quickly and Coco passed away sometime between 4 and 7 this morning. I don't know if he ate something he shouldn't have or if the noise of fireworks created stress on his system. Whatever it was took its toll on the little guy. I checked on him throughout the night and even got him to drink water so I was pretty upset to find him this morning. Needless to say, the kids were also upset. Dylan was devestated. He and I shared lots of teary moments today. I'm such a sucker for animals!

This was Coco the day we brought him home.

High Flying

What form!

Look real closely and you'll see something flying through the air as she leaps off the high dive. Yep - that's Lyndsi at age 6!