GoodBye Summer

Cassidy, Cari and I said good bye to summer with one last trip. We met up with Mom and Dad and Benell and Ilene T. in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest on Mt. Adams. Three days of riding and family before back to work was wonderful. This was our view from camp...not to shabby huh?

Here is the crew on day one getting ready to ride. Mom, Cassidy and Ilene stayed in camp while we explored some back country. It was beautiful with views of Adams and Rainer, high meadows in bloom and cascading waterfalls.



The second day we took a shorter ride in the morning so Cass could join us. She started off with me on Tucker but ended up with Dad on Belle...I think I might have to give up on keeping her away from mules. On the way back, with a full belly of huckleberries, Cassidy fell asleep, leaving Dad to tend the snack cup and sippy....If only the old river boys could see him now!

The whole crew
Yummmm...

I gave up trying to put a caption on this picture...

We had lots of trips to the meadow in the evenings to see the mountain and the moon

Where's Cassidy?

There she is!

Mornings were a little chilly so while we drank our coffee Cassidy got warm milk. She and Benell became good buddies.

Always busy...

Like most of our trips, we definitely didn't go hungry. Cassidy especailly liked the ribs!

Day 3 brought some low clouds but we got a good ride in before heading home. Another great trip and special memories with Grandpa..

And Grandma.

Changes

This morning I made a drastic change and....I LOVE IT!! I can actually run my fingers through my hair, and I have shape! It's fantastic! I feel like a girl (quit gasping!) We'll see if I can keep it up! As for Chad, he misses the curl, but is happy that I can't even put my hair in a braid if I wanted too, which is one of the criteria I told the stylist.

The new hair-do goes along with my new job. I resigned from Catholic Community Services to return to teaching. My old middle school offered me a position to start an EBD classroom for 6-8 graders. Because of the intensity of the kids, I'll have at most 10 students with 2 instructional aids. It's going to be a very tough job, but I'm so excited and hoping my background in both special education and mental health counseling will serve me well. I enjoyed being a counselor but have felt my true place is in the classroom. Plus I get my summers off!! The down side is that it's back to work full time. It's not too bad though becuase even on long days I'll be home by 4pm. Cassidy is all set to spend a few afternoons a week (at the most 3) with a close neighbor who has worked in early childhood special education until recently and has a 22 month old little boy and a 4 year old girl. I'm excited about her being able to socialize more and the play dates that we've had have all gone well. Chad will still be watching her in the mornings and on his days off and Kit wasn't willing to give up her one day a week. Cass will be in very good hands! I start on the 31st...wish me luck!

Here are some pics of Cassidy.....OF COURSE!

Trying on Dad's slippers and mamma's shoes is a new favorite. She's actually able to walk in them, even Dad's romeos, but not quite ready for my cowboy boots yet...she tipped over backwards!

8 years

Today Chad and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. I'm still trying to figure out how time goes so fast. I guess we've been a little busy! It has gotten better and better every year.
We spent the morning before Chad had to go to work doing our favorite thing....hanging out in the yard as a family. Some families fight to get time apart, we fight and cherish our time together.

Cassidy doing one of her favorite things...sharing the garden harvest with her pups.

Our girl is now 18 months old. She had her check-up last week (sorry, the weather has been nice again!) and is doing well. She now weighs in at 25# 8oz (70%) and is 32" tall (55%).

We got to spend some quality time with Jack and Stacey last week as well at the Children's museum. Cassidy and Jack really liked the actual semi truck cab that is at the main enterance. Once we got them out of that, it was off to the sandbox in a cave, the fishing boat, music room, art room and toddler paly room. We had a great time and have decided to make this a frequent outing/meeting place, especially when the weather turns bad.

They are too cute together....and they get along so well. Mostly because neither one will take any crap from the other!

Grandma and Grandpa K

My Mom and Dad came over Wednesday through Sunday. After a little lesson on Cassidy's new mobility and quickness, we had a great visit, with a little work and lots of play. Cassidy got right back to "taking care" of Cadee, Dad helped with some yard work, Mom got lots of Grandma time, and we all ate crab.

I don't think Cass knew what she was doing, but she wanted to help Grandpa. I'm pretty sure if she knew she was helping them pack to leave, she wouldn't have been so eager.

Cassidy didn't want to let Grandpa go after they were all packed up. They seem to be getting a pretty special bond that keeps growing stronger and is amazing to see. I'm sure we'll be back together soon.

Cass's New Pool

Last week, during the heat wave, Grandma Kit brought down a new pool for miss Cassidy. After she helped Chad blow it up, she had a blast.

Yep, she found something else to bounce on...

By day two we had found her swimsuit and she was back in the water. She had a great time playing with Echo, even after splashing herself instead of her dog!

Do you see the wheels turning? She has a plan....

not exactly what she had in mind

Here is the video version. I think she likes it, and so does Echo!

90th and 1st

July 19th we celebrated Chad's Grandpa's 90th Birthday. He had family from Kansas, Idaho, Oregon and Washington come to help celebrate. Cassidy was able to meet Susannah from Idaho and I think it's a good thing these two cuties don't live closer together...TROUBLE!

Cassidy with her Great Grandpa

All the great grandkids...

Chad took the brood to the hay field for a little wiffleball/softball game.

After the game, everyone needed to cool off with popsicles. Cassidy wasn't about to be left out of the game and popsicles, so Grandma gave in...

This was our attempt to get Cass down for a nap....yah right!

On the following Wednesday Cassidy and I went for our first ride on Tucker. She made it a hour, and so did I! We're still figuring it out, but the sippy cup and snack cup tethered to the saddle definitely helped.

Thursday found the cousin clan at our house bright and early with Grandma and Grandpa to go on the 1st annual crabbing and camping trip. After two boatloads of gear and people we landed at our campsite with enough gear for I think a week!

We had a little snafu with the extra low tide and some mud...but we got the boat back into the water after the ultimate leg workout and about 45 minutes being waste deep in the lovely bay mud. Always an adventure!

Then the fun really began with the rope swing. Even Jerry got a good swing, followed by Caden, Brady, Lindsey, Alexa, and of course Cassidy

With the tide out it was a great time to do some beach exploring. Cassidy really liked the kelp and wasn't about to be left behind. Her cousins are so great to her and made sure she was always included.

When the tide came back in, it was time to go get some crab!

and we found the monster of the ocean

The two boys with the prize catch and another good sized crab.

We had a sudden summer storm roll in, complete with thunder and lightning. Check out the rain bouncing off the water and the sun shining not too far away. It was amazing, but caught us a little off guard. Thank goodness Jerry was in camp and able to scramble to get things covered up. The girls didn't even have the rain fly on our tent, it was too warm! It rained a little off and on through the night, but not enough to really bother us.

Crabbing wasn't great, but we got enough to have with dinner and give each cousin a lesson in how to clean. They were great students and the crab, like most things, tasted even better camping!

Kit took Cassidy back to our house for the night. Here is the camp crew that stayed.

The next day the girls decided they wanted to hang out with Grandma and Cassidy while Chad, Jerry, Brady, Caden, and I continued our hunt for crab. However, after pulling pots for most of the day that had lots of crab but few legal ones, we decided to do a little more beach exploring and found a new adventure....clamming! The boys, including Chad and Jerry, would watch for the spouts of water shoot up and then frantically dig using a clam shell! They actually did pretty well, and we got quite a few.

I think the kids had a great time, but were pretty worn out by the time they got all their gear back into Grandma and Grandpa's cars and headed home. I heard a rumor that one was even asleep before hitting the highway! Hopefully we'll make this a new tradition. It's always great when all the kids can come together.