Hiking at Mowich Lake

I woke up Saturday morning - to an ALARM, can you believe it? Me, an alarm? Yes, I set one every day. It's my "me" time in the morning. Cole sleeps in a little later (from staying up later during summertime), Shawn always sleeps in and when we have Anna on the weekends, well, she's a teenager and it's practically a requirement. (Ahh, I remember those days fondly)

Anyhow.... Shawn and I were discussing what to do for the day when he said, "Let's go for another hike."

I'm game - let's go!!

He's already picked out a spot and so up, up, up we go past Wilkeson & Carbonado to Mowich Lake. We pass nice sized patches of SNOW and Cole is just amazed by this. For as nice as it's been here and us wearing shorts and tank tops, I'm a little surprised too.

A little bridge over a stream

The hiking was pretty intense. I'm telling you, I struggled a bit on some of the inclines. The hike itself was great! We started at almost 5000 feet and only inclined about 150 feet, but it was fairly severe descents and inclines - LOTS of steps - that almost killed these little legs of mine!

But when we got to the lookout........... we were rewarded with a SPECTACULAR view!

The beautiful, majestic Mt. Rainier

(and so nekkid!)

I just have my Canon Elph.... the contrast is horrible! But here are the kids with the mountain

Breathtaking!

The first waterfall we came to. Shawn kept teasing us with, "Oh, this is going to be the biggest waterfall you've ever seen!" Uh-huh.... But it did get better each time.

The second waterfall. Most impressive! But we had NO IDEA what we were in store for.....

Our next stop completely took our breath away!!

SPRAY FALLS - elev. 5100 feet

So completely spectacular and spiritual to witness! It was graceful and masculine all in the same sight. Just hearing the rush of the water and feeling the spray, you could tell this was a very powerful force.

Cole taking it all in

Shawn & Anna decided to brave it across the river to capture the WHOLE view of the falls. Cole was too little to cross and I was, well, too scared. I'm scared of heights and don't like being out of control. Let them take the chance!

I admit, they got a gorgeous view!! You're able to see almost the entire falls on the other side. In the words of Cole, "no fair!"

The *entire* Spray Falls

And one last photo - PROOF that I was there! :)

I GOT A JOB!!

It's been a long time comin', but..........

I'm officially EMPLOYED!

After a long, L O N G sabbatical (I say that with a grain of salt) and Shawn and I sitting around trying to figure out 'what I want to do with my life'. He gave me a FANTASTIC idea - grocery stores. He always raves about how he LOVED working at his local grocery store through high school. So.....

I am happy to say that I am a new employee of - Safeway.

(for those of you not in the area, it's a grocery store)

I am the newest, 34 year old Courtesey Clerk at the local store.

Ha!

I have a teenagers job!

But it's my foot in the door. And the only thing they had available with my schedule right now. With Cole out of school, I really didn't want to put him in some sort of daycare, it just doesn't work out financially. When school starts, my schedule opens waaaay up. This way Cole & I can still enjoy our summer!

Yay!

The woman that interviewed and hired me told an interesting story too. She started out as a courtesey clerk also and on her 3rd day she heard over the intercom, "Heather, please come to the managers office before you leave today". She was like, "crap, I'm getting canned on my 3rd day!?"

In the managers office he asks her, "So, where do you want to go?". Puzzled, she asks, "What?". He proceeds to tell her that EVERY department wants her, that she has her pick of the store and can choose to her liking.

She moved up to Checker just like that.

And that's what I'm interested in. Moving up. I'm able to move up and up and up as well as transfer, transfer, transfer.

All around, best move ever!

But for now - I'm a bagger. And I'm OK with that.

Hiking - 4th of July weekend

First, I had to snap one more photo of Cole on the 4th of July.... we were getting ready to eat dinner and he said he didn't feel good. We told him to "go rest on your bed"... a half hour went by and we hadn't heard a peep out of him. So I went to check and this is what I found:

(sorry, the photo is blurry, still working on how to take darker pics ??)

I think all the HEAT from the day had just exhausted him.. He was OUT! We did wake him up in time to see the fireworks down by his school, overlooking the bay.

Sunday we decided to go on a hike. I think Cole was the most excited - his first real hike! We went up near the Carbon River Glacier, past Carbonado to see how washed out the road was from last years flooding.

WHOA!

You couldn't even get up to the trailheads. So normally a small little walk to the falls (literally, about 2 minutes) turned into an 8 mile hike along the former road. So much devastation! But it was a great day to be in the forest, shaded from the sun. (did I say that??)

Dad showing Cole how to count the trees age

HUGE fallen trees

Complete mudslide where the road once was!

walking the trail

Bummer. 3 small, little bridges to get to the falls and the middle one was gone.

Beautiful sight from the river

Lewis and Clark

You could SEE the falls, we just couldn't get there......

A VERY refreshing stream! Did I mention it has been hot here?

Happy 4th of July!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

HOORAY FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY!

With our country (and world) in turmoil, it was nice to 'get back to basics' and celebrate what this country is all about - FREEDOM! And we couldn't have planned a nicer, more GORGEOUS weekend if we tried. I'm telling you...... it. was. BEAUTIFUL!!

All week leading up to the 4th it was sunny, blue skies and reaching 90 degrees! And although I'm not a fan of the HEAT, I'll take the SUN any day!

We had such a great weekend, just wish Anna could've shared it with us :(

Cole making dad a 4th of July card

Then we headed to the Freedom Fair down at Ruston Way in Tacoma. Come to find out, this enormous 'block party' has been going on for 30 years?!?! I've lived in T-town for 12 and have never been. Wha??

It's not far from our house at all, so I guess I'm just used to seeing the planes & jets practicing and catching glimpses of them thru the trees. I never thought of actually going DOWN there. sheesh, see what I've been missing!?

VERY cool manuevers right over Commencement Bay!


Cole *LOVED* the A-10 and the Harrier

Starting to get a little heat stroke, I think....

Cole & Dad watching the Harrier

SO, SO, SO COOL TO SEE!! It just hovered and hovered there with this huge, massive jet blowing into the water. He even rotated it a full 360 degrees and went backwards!! A great ending to a great day!

(beginning) Summer FUN!!

We've had some fun in the SUN the last few weeks since school has been out. Surprisingly, our Pacific NW weather has been AMAZING!!! We've had almost solid sunny days since the middle of June! Cole & I took advantage of the sunshine and headed down to Dash Point Park in Federal Way (my old stompin' grounds) and met his friend Odin, mom Kari and sisters Siri & Nina. They are such great people and very gracious to invite us along!

Cole got to use his "boogey board" - um, now they're called SKIM boards, mom, gosh! - for the first time since he got it for his birthday either LAST year or maybe even the year before! He was super excited, to say the least!! And did surprisingly well on it! Dash Pt is a great place for this with the lazy stream and warmer water.

Looking forward to many more sunny days and adventures - more to come soon! Hope you all are enjoying your beginning of summer as well! :)

Cole & his SKIM board

Cole & Odin getting ready to surf!

Siri enjoying the sun

Cole & friends digging for 'more water' ??

getting the hang of it!!

In action!

WHOA! Nice action shot mom! Feet off the board!

I told Cole to go start reading, thought he was in his room and found him outside in MY usual spot reading! Awwww...... so cute!!

Anna's 8th Grade Graduation

Anna graduated 8th grade this June and will be moving on to HIGH SCHOOL next year!!! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Wow!!

They had a beautiful (and long) ceremony for the 8th graders 'moving on'.... Lots of awards, recognitions and speeches. She was beautiful, elegant & poised as always!

The photos I got aren't great, my camera just wasn't cooperating. Maybe it was user error. Ha! There I was with my sleek, slim little Canon Elph (which takes awesome photos by the way!) and Anna's step dad walks by with his mile-long camera lens..... ho-hum. (Maybe I'll get him to burn them to a disc and I can post more!)

........ (High School?!?...... sigh.......) .........

Anna in the beautiful dress that Dad bought her! Awww.....

The gym for Anna's graduation

Anna playing the exit music on her viola for her class

Anna in her graduation dress

(note the plastic turquoise earrings - they're back from the 80's!!)

Last Day of School

I'm a little late with the posting but we've had such NICE weather here, I've had to be outstide in the sunshine. HAD to.

For Cole's last day of school, I went a few minutes early and snapped some photos of him & his friends signing their 'autograph books' and generally just being crazy 2nd graders!

SCHOOL IS OUT!!! HAPPY SUMMER!!

Odin, James & Cole

Jagger, Chase & Cole

Cole with his new rollerblades! Dad & I got these for his 8th birthday and he started skating immediately! Way to go Shark!