Mt. Baker Summer Hiking in Pictures & Story

Day 1: We finally arrived at our rustic cabin in the woods. There was no Internet, phone, TV, cell coverage. Zip, Nada. I was not-so-secretly pleased to have my husband Luc all to myself this trip. Hee hee. No iPhone to browse on. No clients calling! No machinery to work on (or talk about, save for the van, which did get talked about). Double hee hee. We will be a family of just four. My parents and sisterand her family came up as well and occupied the neighboring cabin.

Day 2: Driving up the mountain back roads in our... van? Pictured above is the result of me putting my hand out the window and taking a pic while I precariously drive, which strangely, Luc did not complain about. It was, perhaps, one of the few things I did that he wasn't afraid of while I was driving. It might sound like I am not a good driver, but I am in fact a great driver. Luc just happens to be a bit of a squealer when it comes to driving up old mountain roads that have no side rail, just lots of feet in elevation. I was soon to discover that so am I, when he is driving the van on the way down the mountain. Hmm.

Some of the beautiful vegetation in the meadows on our hike "Skyline Divide".

Looked like a person to me! Above: roots in the trail

Marina holds Auntie Rachelle's hand on a hike. Also the lens of my camera happens to be foggy, I mean greasy, due to little dirty human paws.

The whole family, stopped to pose, Skyline Divide Trail. Photo taken by Vicky.

I worried for days before our trip about how to carry our hiking necessities (food, water, extra clothes) and the kids. One parent for each kid, but that does not leave us with much space for our other necessities. Nalgene water bags on Ergo packs to the rescue. The weather was so lovely and sunny that I did not bring any extra clothes, and Lucy the dog carried the kids little coats (plus some water). I really appreciated having a doggie backpack! It also slowed Lucy down, as she often runs ahead a bit.

Above: Luc carries Marina, food, water, and extra clothes. Woo hoo!

There were plenty of cool nature sights to photograph. I only wish I had a better camera. I am growing out of my point and shoot!!

The hiking entourage with me in the foreground (self-portrait). Stella is on my back. See that little flap happy fish hat? That is her. She is in the Ergo. Ergo backpack, how I love you with all my being... that is another blog entry though.

Marina found this cool rock at the top of the mountain on the hike "Skyline Divide". Good eyes she has for the interesting...

Auntie Rachelle swings a ballerina Marina

Taking in the view: Lucy, will I ever understand your lack of fear of high precarious cliffs? No, probably not. Is it that you have four feet, instead of my unsteady two? Perhaps. You have a backpack on too Lucy, for goodness sakes!

Marina's hiking wish come true: I want a hike with wild flowers!! This "wish" bordered on demand, and we all caved to her impending melt down. All of us.

Yes, I told her absolutely not to pick the wildflowers and then she (see below pic) ran away and picked more.

Day 3: Twin Lakes hike, or Flies, Flies, EVERYWHERE, biting, buzzing, beating their little wings. Terrorizing the kids. And me. Oh, and two pretty lakes with lots of snow and flowers.

Hiking & carrying Stella: hot & sweaty. The temps were in the 80-90s.

Above: Marina at Twin Lakes. The snow was wonderful and a nice respite from the scorching trail up to the lakes.

Above: view of one of the lakes that makes up Twin Lakes form my high vantage. I ran up the trail for a 1 1/2 mile very steep workout, while the rest of the hiking party ate lunch. It was finally high enough that there were no flies!

Day 4: Luc's Birthday Marina and Stella with Luc's flourless Chocolate Cake. What a lovely and peaceful place to celebrate!


The Crisp, Clean River: is a short 1/2 mile walk form our cabin, and the site of our relief from scorching 90 degree heat. It was so hot at night we had to cool off in the frigid river right before bed to handle the stuffy cabins.

Ahhh, sweet cool relief from the heat!

Above: we had to hike a mile to get to this spot on the river. It was worth it because we were able to jump off the rock (foreground) into the deep pool below. See following pics of me jumping in.

Above: the kiddy pool, closer to our cabin, and still deep enough for adults

Above: another shot of the kiddy pool

Above: holding baby Ida for my sister at the riverside.

Stella enjoyed the sand and mud and was happy to hang out playing quietly

river
jumping
swimming
floating
riding the current
sliding over rocks
swimming with my water dog
from rock to rock
grasping and flinging
my body with the current

cool
clean
clear
fresh
like filtered water
from the grocery store
it gets in my mouth
as I ride the current down
and it tastes good!

Stella Nurses . . . with a fork?

My Booby Chair

Let me note that this is not my real booby chair, just my dream booby chair from http://freshome.com/tag/chair/page/2/

We have stacks of books on all the tables around my favorite nursing chair. We call it the booby chair. Stella knows to stand by it and yell for me, and I will know just what she wants. I really need to go through those books. Read the books. Return the library books. Recycle the newspapers. Donate the magazines. Shelf my personal books and the kids books. I am being more than a bit ambitious to have so many books next to the booby chair. It's not like Stella is an infant, attached to the boob like a alternate umbilical cord. But. . . those boobies are really my only excuse to sit down, with the kids around, and read my books. I could read on their Nanny Day, but . . . pretty unlikely considering my 'to do' listssss (meaning plural, really plural).

Here is a sample of my reading material

Juicing! yum
Jeanne Rose's Kitchen Cosmetics too much work but interesting stuff
Taking Charge of Your Fertility good idea
Positive Disciple another good idea
Outside Magazine Dec 08 yeah, Michael Phelps
The Passion of the Hausfrau funny and depressing all at the same time
Island County Fair premium List "How to enter the fair list" gotta get my act together!
Bon Appetit Apr 09 more yum
Home Education May/June 09 not ready to think about school, yet
Home Education Jan/Feb 09 ditto
Hobby farms May/Jun 09 wild food foraging could be a good way to save?
Bon Appetit May 09 pasta, yum
Bon Appetit Mar 09 why am I torturing myself? I don't have time for these recipes! Ah, yes... inspiration
No One Cares What You Had for Lunch 100 ideas for your blog see I'm trying... in my case it could say, "No one cares what your kids did today," ha ha.
Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs magic is good
Elemental Shaman hmm, lots of writing, haven't gotten to this one yet either
Life After Death, Deepak Chopra always an interesting topic to me
Outside Magazine Nov 09 nice muscular body and fresh fruits on the cover--good combo!

Taking A Trip with (Little) Kids & Making Lists

picture courtesy http://www.cheerdiva.com/totes/index.html?c=9&i=226&t=0

Marina is 4 years old and quite happy to get her own travel bag. I mean really happy. She is borrowing it from Grandma, and EVERYTHING "grandma" is special.

Stella is 1.5 years old needs her own bag too. Meaning: she wants her own bag. When Marina was Stella's age, she didn't care about having her own bag. But when you see your sister has something she really likes and you don't? You use all means possible to get one of your own (usually accomplished by trying to take big sister's bag). It's pretty effective by the way. Who would've thought a little toddler could be so bold?

Here is one of my many lists to do before my big trip:
__ water plants
__ gather food from garden
__ pack kids clothes (while they are not around)
__ make list for animal sitter about animal care
__ get supplements
__ call & meet with animal sitter
__ buy sunscreen
__ make food lists
__ super glue sunglasses
__ Figure out how you are going to carry a kid and stuff while backpacking
__ make more lists
__ fix water timer for garden
__ get ingredients for margaritas

My Flower Girls, it's going to make you smile! And some pictures of flower jewlery

Sister flower faeries

Kisses

And more kisses

Fragrant Rose Neck Wreath from a climbing rose variety

Marina made these flower rings by wrapping the stems around the flower heads and tucking them in.

I Just Couldn't Help it. . .

Okay so having little kids is just one photo op after another. Stella (1 yo) has been wanting to be part of just about everything that Marina (4 yo) is doing, as long as she is quick enough to catch on. Chocolate, check. Scissors, check. Beads, check. Painting, check. Pens, check. Ballerina outfits, check. The list goes on. With the dangerous-for-babies endeavors we deal with Stella's upset at not being able to be included, but some of the other things, like messy endeavors . . . oh well, I am resigned to cleaning them up by myself for the next couple years. Wait how many years did you say?!?

Baby Ballerina: I safety pinned one of Marina's outfits to fit Stella (why do they call them safety pins when they have a really sharp needle at one end?)

Marina in a matching ballet dress, showing off her watercolor artwork on the windows

Baby Blue-Eyed Ballerina

The cat can finally appreciate Marina's petting skills

"Bunny Bear" on the Bear Chair

Time to Plant in the Garden: Pacific Northwest Gardeners & kids too!

Above: Kiki the cat likes to join us when we are gardening

April IS here and if you have not planted cool-loving vegetables, now is the time! Some of my favorite vegetables get planted in late March early April. Case in point: spinach, beets, lettuce, snap peas, chard, potatoes, radishes and kale. I bundled the girls up and they helped plant the vegetables. Stella (1 yo) actually placed seeds in rows too. She loved it. I worked quickly to keep her from trampling too many planting beds. Marina planted a few rows herself. Then we hurried inside and made some hot chocolate and read stories. Ahhh, the best of spring and winter!