Summer Vacation 2012

Guest writing for Marin is her husband Kevin.

We just got back from our vaction to the Redwood forest and Ashland, OR.  We spent two night camping in the Redwoods and three nights in Ashland.  This entry will be about our time in the Redwoods.   A later post will be about our time in Ashland.

We headed out early Monday morning arriving at the National Park in the afternoon.  Our first choice for a campground, Gold Bluff Beach was full.  Our second choice, Elk Creek was also full.   This was not starting off so good.  We headed south of the park to Patrick's Point State Park to find an open camp site.  The whole family really liked this campground.  Molly and Keenan highly recommend campsite 97 in the Agate Beach campground at Patrick's Point.  After setting up camp, we headed down the road some more to Arcata and Humboldt State University, Kevin's Alma Mater.  After picking up bagels for breakfast at Los Bagels, the family was hungry so we drove out to the Samoa Cookhouse.

When Marin was telling people where we were going for vacation, a few of them suggested this fine place.  It is a set menu with family style seating.  We started out with fresh home made bread, vegatable soup and salad.  Then came the main entrees of southern fried chicken and ham with mashed potatoes and corn.  For dessert we had home made apple pie with whipped cream.  Delicious!

After dinner we drove back into Arcata.  it is a beautiful college town, with the campus backed-up into a redwood forest.  I showed them the dorm building I lived in, Madrone; the main building where I had most of my classes, Founder's Hall; and the track where I spent most afternoons running over hurdles.  That night we settled into our campsite and got an amazing display of the stars.



The next day we woke to a foggy morning, with sunlight filtering through the mist and trees.

After breakfast we decide to wander around Patrick's Point and made our way to this rugged coastline.  We could hear sea lions down in the water.

With a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches inside us, we drove into the coastal town of Trinidad.  Marin has decided this town is on our list of places to retire to.  Molly liked the HSU Marine Lab where we got to touch tide-pool creatures.

It was now time to discover the redwoods up close and personal.  We headed to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove.  These trees can live up to 1500 years old and reach heights way over 300 feet.  These trees are just massive and you don't get a true understanding of how big they are unless you stand right next to them.

I had one more stop planned for the family this day, Fern Canyon.  It required us driving six miles on a dusty, gravel road with many pot holes.  The whole family put up a fuss about how we should not drive on this road, but I kept going.  About a mile from the trailhead, we came to our first stream crossing.  Marin demanded we stop and said that I would have to walk the rest of the way there.  She would stay in the car and knit.  Molly was going to stay with her.  I got out of the car, put Keenan on my shoulders (since that was the only way Keenan would go with me) and walked the rest of the way there.  About 100 yards from the trailhead, I turn around to see Marin driving the car to the trailhead.    She had decided that she wasn't  going to wait in the car anymore.  I don't think she was disappointed by her decision.  Fern Canyon's walls are 40 feet tall and covered in ferns.  There is a small creek that runs down it and fallen redwood trees across the trail that have crashed down from above.   Both Molly and Keenan thought this was a cool place to hike around in.

On the drive out on the gravel road, we came across a herd of Roosevelt Elk and a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean.

The next morning we broke camp and headed north towards Ashland.  Before we left the Redwoods we stopped at the Big Tree and the Cathedral trail loop.  A great hike for a family with kids who don't like to hike.  Tons of huge trees as well as fallen trees that kids can climb around on.

Our last stop before heading back into Oregon was the Trees Of Mysteries, with it's statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.  It is a total tourist trap.   Of course, we left with several souvenirs.

My next post will be on our time spent in Ashland.

Mother's Day at Elk Rock Garden

After church, our family drove over to a neat little hidden garden in Lake Oswego. To get to it, you have to drive past large beautiful mansions with spacious manicured lawns and yards that back up to the Willamette river. I've never used the ipad before solely as a camera, so u will have to let me know how good you think the quality of the photos are. We didn't have much time before they closed, but for Keenan, the 30 minutes was enough. He isn't old enough to appreciate all the beauty's of the earth. It was a perfect day, however, for a nice walk and the ever-present heavenly scents of the garden.

Revisiting the Past

One Sunday in early October, the 2nd of Oct. to be exact, we were out for a family walk on a nice new path in Wilsonville. It was a wet day, but that didn't stop the kids from wanting to play on a school playground that bordered the walking trail. Keenan's favorite thing to do at playgrounds of late, is the monkey bars--something he has been successful at for the past several months. He falls off sometimes, which all kids do. Unforrtunately, this time he apparently fell on his right arm (none of us witnessed the fall). He, of course, cried--but not very hard. We looked at it and nothing looked differently. He cont'd to complain, but mostly about having to continue to walk because we hadn't started our actual walk yet when the kids got sidetracked by the playground. After 15 minutes of complaining, we turned around and went home. Well, long story short. 4 hours later when Keenan's arm started to swell, we called the Providence advice line and were sent to the Milwaukie Providence ER where Keenan's arm was x-rayed and found to be broken in 2 places. After seeing an Orothopedic surgeon two days later, we were given further bad news: the break in Keenan's Ulna was too close to the elbow joint and so surgery would be needed to place a pin in his bone. Bummer.

So here is Keenan wearing his splint at Emanuel Hospital for an "out-pt" surgery. We arrived at 9:00 in the morning and didn't leave until 4pm in the afternoon. He doesn't look too thrilled in this picture, but he actually had quite a bit of fun riding the small cars and playing video games in the kid's waiting room.

This is the silly Keenan we know and love.

Waiting in the pre-op room and trying to keep Keenan occupied. He had already been given a dose of a relaxant and it was quite entertaining to see him start to act a little "drunk."

Post operation. Keenan slept for a VERY long time. He looked so peaceful.

Back to his usual crazy ways. In many ways, that cast did not slow him down one bit. Writing and eating were another story. He already had a difficult time writing with his right hand and so if you can imagine the struggle he had trying to write with his left. . . . Eating with his left hand was actually easier than I thought it would be. In fact, after he got his cast off, he continued to eat with his left hand for several days afterwards. He may have never stopped if we hadn't prompted him to use his right hand.

Last photo before we headed to the Dr's office to get his cast off.

4 weeks later and the cast is off! I had never witnessed a cast coming off and didn't really know what to expect. The technician said it would only tickle Keenan and boy, was that true! Keenan squirmed and kicked (the technician, yikes!) and I had to contain his flailing body parts while his cast was being "sawed" off. I brought Keenan's sling as recommended because his arm obviously would need some transition time from bent to straight. He gladly wore it pretty much the rest of the day, but by the next day he was as good as new :).

Epilogue: Later x-rays show the arm to be healing very nicely. Bummer thing is that in 5 or so months Keenan will have to go back into surgery to have the pin removed. Sorry, kiddo! :(

The Things Kids Say

Keenan: I want to marry a girl in my class.

Me: What's her name?

Keenan: Addie Mae.

Me: Why do you want to marry her?

Keenan: Because she's so nice and doesn't do anything bad. . . I really want to marry her. . but not now--when I'm older like you and daddy.

Keenan's Kindergarten Picture

Go Outside

A little recap of some of the Mattias' outside adventures. The music is by The Lonely Forest.

Happy Easter

I know I'm late posting for Easter, but if you compare what I've been doing the whole year (basically nothing), I think I'm doing pretty good! :) We had 2 Easter Egg Hunt's this year: One on Saturday (I try to separate the commercialism with the religious significance of the holiday) at home with all the candy; the other one, a small one down at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Dallas and with all the eggs we and my brother Paul's family dyed. This was the first year that Molly questioned the reality of the Easter Bunny and even now, I'm not sure if she believes or not because Kevin and I never gave her a straight answer. I don't want her to grow up! Next thing we know, she will stop believing in Santa Claus and I can not have that!

Anyhow, our house is not very big with not very many hiding places and so I thought Keenan and Molly would find their eggs quite fast. I was surprised how long it did take them. I love my kids, but they sure aren't very observant! ;0

Funny thing also is that Keenan kept following Molly around and of course, she was taking everything in her path leaving nothing behind for Keenan. We took several video clips and you could overhear me several times telling Keenan to go to a different place in the house or telling Molly to leave SOME candy for Keenan :) The first picture below is of Keenan with not very many eggs in his basket. Fortunately, he could care less, he was having a good time.

Keenan taking a break from the hunt to enjoy some candy.

Molly very pleased with her haul of the loot.

Easter egg hunt in Dallas. The clouds decided to open up right about this time, but the kids didn't seem to care too much.

I think this is a great picture.

Couldn't resist taking a picture of the slug who found his way on top of the brightly colored easter egg hidden in the green grass.

Always a challenge to get four little kids to not only smile, but to also LOOK at the camera :) (I love little Coley hefting that big egg up in the air: it was stuffed with rice krispy treats-yum!)

My baby boy is 5!

I've had this post in edit-form for quite some time now and figured it was time to publish it since I've got an Easter post all ready to go. Keenan turned 5 back on February 24th and although he wanted to go to Legoland for his birthday, we had to scale back his grand idea a bit and go to Spaghetti Factory and Wunderland Arcade instead :). He did, however, get some cool lego sets from his Aunt Karen and Uncle Peter and also from us. Keenan's most favorite thing in the world right now is Legos and will do ANYTHING to get a new Lego set. Fortunately for him, I'm very fond of building lego sets and we can spend hours together reading the directions and looking for the pieces. It's so great that something like this can hold his attention for so long :). I hope some day we can take him to Legoland. He would love it!

Helicopter from the 3-in-1 Set

Star Fighter Ship

Spaghetti Factory: Mine and Keenan's favorite restaurant. Keenan would probably eat spaghetti and meatballs every day if he could.

Happy spaghetti eaters.

Keenan's choice of desserts: a rich, chocolate shake

Wunderland Nickel Arcade: No Miss Pacman or other classic games, but that didn't matter to the younger generation: they just like games that win tickets to buy prizes!

You can't see it in the picture, but Keenan is actually driving a semi-truck :)

Some extra photos I threw in. He had a babysitter this day who styled his hair all spiky. "I'm a porcupine," he said to me when I got home from work.

It's still hard for me to believe that my baby boy is 5 years old now. This fall he will enter kindergarten and I don't want to let him go! I'm so glad he is such a cuddly boy because I always want to hold him on my lap and give him lots of hugs and kisses. I know that that will probably change in the not too distant future, so for now, I will take advantage and cherish it while I can. I love you, Keenan!