A busy summer

The three oldest kids just got home from a 4-day Pioneer Trek. For four days, they pushed and pulled handcarts over the hilly and rocky Barlow Road, which actual pioneers used to get around Mt. Hood in the old days. They dressed like pioneers, ate like pioneers and slept like pioneers. They loved every minute of it, even though it was really difficult. They all learned a lot, and hopefully will remember these things for the rest of their lives. Some things they all learned:

1. They CAN do really hard things.

2. Oatmeal isn't so bad if you are really, really hungry

3. Being woken up by a mob at 11:30pm and forced to move your camp another 1.5 miles down the trail in the dark is scary and annoying, but they got a glimpse of how the Mormon pioneers felt being forced by a mob to pick up and move.

4. Just when the handcart seems too much for you to push up a steep hill, angels will come from nowhere and assist you.

5. Crossing 40-degree water with a handcart full of provisions is cold and hard, but possible when everyone works together.

It was a great experience for all of them, but I sure missed them while they were gone. My 2 drivers and 3 of my babysitters were gone. I had to drive the little guys everywhere and take them all with me. Not that I minded, but the little guys prefer to stay home and play rather than run errands with me.

Also, last week was the last day of school for Noah and Sav. Their charter school has a 200-day school year, with only a 6-week summer break. I have loved everything about their new school this year, but I can't say I'm crazy about the short summer. But Sav explained that it was actually fine, because by the time they got out of school, all the other kids were already bored with their summer, and now she has 6 weeks to have fun and not be bored. What a great girl. The kids love their school, even with the long days and long year. When a 2nd grader is doing long division and has a complete understanding of the ins and outs of fractions, you know the school is doing something right, even if they go to school into July.

The rest of the summer is going to be wild. Noah has cub scout day camp this week, and I just dropped of Abram and Jacob for their scout high adventure. They unpacked their trek stuff, and then packed up for a 5-night 6-day 340-mile bike ride on the Oregon coast. They will start today in Tillamook and put in 60-70 miles a day until they get to California. They will get home late Saturday night, and we'll be off on our next adventure the following morning.

We'll get up early and drive to Utah for Mark's family reunion at Bear Lake. Then we'll come home late Friday night so Joel and Jacob can get ready to go to scout camp the following Monday morning at 5am. They will be home for 3 days, and then it's off to Belize. I figured that Jacob has 4 nights left sleeping at our house this summer. That's pretty sad for me, because he's pretty much awesome to have around.

I just hope my 2 boys will be safe on their bikes this week. I can't wait to see them Saturday night. I'm sure they will be just a tiny bit saddle sore.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

There is a new cookie in my lineup. This recipe comes from the King Arthur Flour catalog. I love their website and their catalog. They have a great collection of recipes and a great baking blog. We just got a new catalog yesterday and this recipe was inside. I immediately had to try it.

First, I had to find mini peanut butter cups. The catalog had them for $6.96 for a 12-oz bag. That seemed a little steep to me. I vaguely remembered seeing them at Trader Joe's around the holidays, and sure enough, TJs didn't let me down. $2.99 for a 12-oz package.

One tip I would recommend is to keep the mini PB cups in the refrigerator. The first time I tried this with room temperature PB cups, and the mixer smashed them. I quickly shut off the mixer and finished mixing them in by hand and it worked fine. Next time I will chill the PB cups and then hand-mix them into the dough.

• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 c mini peanut butter cups

1) Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

2) In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

3) In another bowl, (I use a Kitchenaid with paddle attachment, of course0 beat together the sugars, butter, and peanut butter until light and fluffy.

4) Beat in the vanilla, egg, and water, then stir in the dry ingredients, blending well.

5) Stir in the mini peanut butter cups.

6) Scoop dough onto the prepared baking sheets. Flatten each cookie to about 1/2" thick.

7) Bake the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes, or until they're set and you can smell chocolate. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack.

A riddle

What do a magnificent frigate bird,

a brown pelican,

Mayan temples

and the Macal River

have in common? You guessed it. Belize.

It has been really rainy today, July 12th. The next 10 days here are going to be unseasonably cool and rainy. But you know what? I don't even care. Sure, I love to talk about the weather, but that's not what this post is about. This post is about our upcoming family vacation. 19 days in Earth's hidden treasure--Belize.

Now, there are many definitions of insanity. My personal favorite is Albert Einstein's: doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. But perhaps someone else might define it as this: taking 7 kids on vacation to Belize. Yep. We are THAT crazy.

I should mention that we are going in the low season, lodging and food are cheap there, and we are using 12 years worth of airline points from our dental office credit card for many of the plane tickets. We didn't win the lottery, and we have been saving up like crazy for this trip.

When Mark and I were there 3 years ago, we loved everything about Belize, and the whole time we kept telling ourselves that someday we would take all of the kids there, when they were all old enough to remember it. Zack will be 5 in a month, and he still remembers everything from when he was 1, so I think we are good. Also, Abram will be leaving us next summer and heading off to college, so this is our one chance to take everyone there before our family dynamics are forever changed.

We will spend 11 nights on the mainland, including 8 nights in San Ignacio near the Guatemalan border. Last time we were there we didn't explore the inner jungles of Belize, and we are going to have plenty of time to do so. I am so excited about this part.

We will then head to La Isla Bonita for 5 nights.

Belize has been calling us back for 3 years now. I can't wait to be there again. Luckily I got a jump start on my tan last week at camp.

Let the countdown begin!

Aubrey is 16!

It sure doesn't seem like it has been 16 years since I first saw this girl with the big cheeks, red skin and black hair. The nurses at the hospital couldn't get over how much she looked like a little eskimo. She weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces, and she was really cute.

That little baby with red skin and black hair turned into this cute girl with white skin and blonde hair. She was spunky and determined. She knew what was what, and if you weren't OK with that, she didn't care.

I love the above picture because it was Aubrey's third birthday. She woke up that morning, and told me, "I'm 3 now. I don't wear diapers anymore." Sure enough, she put on undies, and she was done with diapers. That was a happy day.

This picture is from today. Aubrey had her birthday yesterday, and then went this morning and got her drivers license. She is an amazing driver, and has been from the first day she sat down in the drivers seat. She has had dreams about driving her entire life (ENTIRE!) and somehow she just knew what to do. She always has watched me drive, and told me when to change lanes or signal. Now it's her turn.

Another big thing for Aubrey was that she got a cell phone today. We have made it our family rule to not give the kids phones until they drive. Aubrey is one happy girl today. Driving and a phone...but not at the same time, of course.

I now have two driving slaves to run errands and drive kids around. Tomorrow Aubrey will drive herself to her harp lesson!! After 7 years of driving her weekly across town, and waiting, it is her turn.

Back from camp

No pictures. But I will tell you what I have been up to this week.

I went to girls camp and ran girls down the river every day. Before and after my rafting gig every day, I would wander around camp talking to girls, laughing my head off, and having fun.

I love the river. I love rafting. I love girls camp. It was a perfect week. The sun came out and the rain stopped. There were not a lot of mosquitoes this year, either. I loved every minute, and I look forward to doing the same thing next year.

Each of the first days, I guided a raft full of girls down the river with another guide or two. The last day at camp we play "Survivor." This game is a brilliant creation (not mine) that combines all of the camp certification skills the girls have learned during the week into one giant Amazing Race. They get clues and have to use all the things they have learned along the way--first aid, cooking (this is where they eat their lunch), fire building, knot tying, hair braiding, orienteering and other things, including how to save someone who falls out of a raft.

This job required us to tow our rafts upriver about 1/4 mile. We had to walk up one shore as far as we could, paddle across the current, walk up that shore, and then once again paddle across a swift current and then walk the raft through a swifter but shallow current to get it to the beach where the girls got in. It was hard, but it was worth it. There were 6 Survivor teams and 3 rafts, so we had to do this raft-moving twice. My quads have never ever been so sore as they are now from walking against the current through thigh-deep water.

Once each team found us at the raft put-in spot, the girls put on life jackets, grabbed some paddles and hopped in the raft. Then along our short trip, one of the older girls "fell" in the deep water and the girls on the raft had to pull her back in.

Did I mention the river is 55 degrees?

The first four teams found us fast--so fast that they were standing there waiting for me to get back upstream from my first trip so they could get in my boat. I loaded up my second team and headed downstream. Then I pulled the raft up on the beach and laid out in the glorious sun. I thought it would be not too long until the next 2 rafts came in, and then we would load up and be done. But it was 2 hours before the other groups finally found the raft put-in. They got stuck on the orienteering, during which they saw me laying in my raft on the beach, and then when they got their rafting clue they just figured that they needed to come back to me. Those 2 teams were very sad to find out they had to hike clear to the other end of the camp in order to get to the put-in.

Anyway, my body got some much-needed sun. So much, in fact, that I actually had people come up to me and say, "You look tan!" I've never been told THAT in my almost 39 years. But I honestly have a tan line--right where my life jacket was. And my rafting sandals. Sure, I've had burn lines plenty of times. But tan lines are something I usually don't get.

One of my favorite things on the river was the run I made Friday morning when we saw a big bird sitting on a log on the bank. So I steered the raft over to the band, and saw that it was a bald eagle. From its markings, I figure it was a 2-year old. It did not move. We were within 3 feet of it and it did not move. As we came closer we could see that the eagle had a big, fat salmon it was eating. The head was gone (everyone knows the eyeballs are the best part, right?). We had come upon it mid-meal and it was more afraid of us taking its fish away that it was of us hurting it. It just sat perfectly still and watched us float. We stopped as long as the current let us. I've never seen an eagle's eye up so close in the wild. This trip also brought sightings of a doe and her 2 babies, a whole family of cute common mergansers, and several osprey, one of which was soaring right over us, hovering and diving in the river over and over trying to find a meal. It was honestly like I had pre-arranged these sightings, or that they were fake because they were so unreal. This particular trip was a raft full of leaders who had not been able to go earlier in the week, so they actually thought it was cool to stop and look at the wildlife. A raft full of 12-year-old girls would not have cared.

Anyway, I'm home, cleaned up and really tired. Early bedtime for me. It was so fun to be surrounded by all the kids from home who had so much to tell me and ask me when I got home this morning. I missed them all. But not enough to ever stay home from girls camp.

When recycling goes bad

I love mother earth as much as the next Oregonian. Our family alone puts out 2 90-gallon recyling rollcarts every week on trash day. But sometimes recycling goes over the top.

This post is actually about a race I ran this morning, though. The Sauvie Island 1/2 Marathon.

My body was definitely not ready for another race only 9 days after I last ran a 1/2. But the race was local, and it was on a non-Sunday. And 13.1 miles is a great way to start off your 4th of July celebration, right?

The good: I have NEVER had a race t-shirt that I actually wore. Usually as soon as I walk in the door after a race I hand the shirt off to one of the little kids to use as PJs. The shirts have all been ugly man-shirts. I am not a rectangle. I have curves. And I have strong arms, so I don't need a t-shirt that touches my elbows to hide anything. This was the first race I have entered that had women's specific sized shirts for the ladies. Thank you! It even is a bright blue with a strawberry on it. Amazingly cute. I will wear it proudly.

Also good was the excellent strawberry shortcake post-race. From strawberries picked right there on the island. Delish.

The bad: Medals should be shiny. Medals should be heavy. Medals should be something fun to wear. Medals should be new. Medals should be water-resistant. Maybe even medals should be made in China. Medals should not be made in Oregon of recycled bicycle chains. And cardboard.

I am not kidding. The "medal" is a piece of cardboard with toothed-gear edges placed inside a circle of recycled bicycle chain. And then on the back they printed a message about how awesome it is to have a race medal made of recycled bicycle chain. It's not awesome. It's stupid.

This race took their recycling to the extreme. They even had trash monitors watching as you threw away your trash. They made sure you put your empty water bottle in the water bottle bin and your dirty strawberry shortcake dish in the right bin. Honestly, a person stood at each trash location to make sure you put your refuse in the correct box. Insanity.

Perhaps that is just my glycogen-depleted brain talking. Perhaps tomorrow I will wake up and realize what a wonderful idea it was to give people leftover junk to commemorate their running accomplishment. But probably not.

But I just ran 13.1 miles! That makes me happy even if the medal does not. Besides, I look fabulous in my new t-shirt.

I can scan!

We have thousands of photographs. Mark was slow to adapt to digital photography, and he has always taken a lot of pictures. Really, really good pictures. But I didn't ever have a great way to get them into a digital format.

About 3 weeks ago I finally ordered a good CanoScan scanner. I got all the photo books ready to scan, installed the software on my new laptop, and then plugged in the scanner.

Nothing happened.

I know. Can you believe it? I actually bought something that did not work! Luckily I had purchased from Amazon, and so I just had to email them that the scanner was non-functional and they sent me a new one. I hooked it up today and the magic has begun.

I am supposed to send some pictures of each of our family members over the years to my sister-in-law for a reunion photo book she is putting together. I have put off the project because I had no scanner. I spent this afternoon going through many books and bringing back some great memories. I should have a lot of posting to do in the next few weeks as the old photographs come to life through the magic of Canon.

The photo at the top is from 1997. The ladybug costume was amazing.


These three are of Aubrey, Jacob and Abram from my sister's wedding reception in 1999. Somehow Abram knew back then that he would be a piano player and be in the spotlight.