Nathaniel birthday YAY!

Happy Birthday to my third son! I love him so much, and he is totally awesome!

Favorite toy : My star wars red ship
Favorite thing to play : Legos
Favorite thing to eat : Hot dogs
Favorite TV show : Phineas and Ferb
Favorite color : Red
Favorite place to visit : Play Ground
Favorite book : Star Wars Yoda in Action
Favorite movie : Star Wars (all of them)
Favorite Video game : Lego Star Wars


Looking forward to years to come, and missing the years that have past. I can't believe you are turning 7. :)

Finally Went Hiking!

YAY!...

I announced to the kids Wednesday, after picking them up from co-op, that we would be going hiking tomorrow (Thursday). Zachary then asked "What about school work?" and I answered "We are playing hooky." there were shouts of excitement in the car after that. I love homeschooling. :)

Thursday morning I woke-up and packed a lunch for us to eat when we got there. It's an hour and a half drive to get to Port Angeles, and a half an hour more to get to Lake Crescent. We stopped at Port Angeles to visit the Olympic National Parks' Visitors Center.

They have a really nice staff, and they helped us pick out some trails that would be easy enough for us to do. We had already done the Marymere falls trail and we wanted to do that same trail again, with maybe a few new ones. The lady who was helping us recommended the Sol Duc water fall trail as well, because it wasn't to far from Marymere, and it was an easy mostly flat trail (we really can't hike strait up a mountain with little ones).

The Marymere Falls trail starts at the Lake Crescent Lodge, and is a mile long. It is a mostly easy trail, with a few steep steps at the very end of the trail. Going back down those steep steps is the worst part.

I always feel the need to carry Olivia on the way back down because I don't want her to lose her footing. The tail and the view is beautiful! 

After Marymere we drove another half an hour to get to the Sol Duc Springs Resort. From there we went on the Sol Duc Falls trail.....

...and the Ancient Groves trail

The Sol Duc trail was easy and like she said mostly flat, so we had a great time walking it, and it was also a mile to the falls and a mile back. Not bad at all. The Ancient Grove however was terrifying. It was a short half mile loop, that lead you to this cliff side trail, that is very narrow, and had a huge drop off. I'm just glad no one lost their footing. The view was breath taking but that might have been because we were fearing for our lives.

We had a really good time, and it was nice taking the day slow and seeing the sights. The kids collected  rocks and they came back to the car with full pockets (even Olivia).

So glad Jeremy is finally healed enough to do things like this :)

Randi Legates NRN (non-registered nurse)

It has been an interesting and tiring week, and it all started last weekend (kind of). Remember when I told you that this weekend we may be going hiking? Well that was actually only because we wanted to go on Easter Sunday, but couldn't go because Jeremy was sick, and we were postponing the trip for this weekend. Well we weren't able to go this weekend either, because of the same reason.

Last Friday, my husband kept saying that his tail bone hurt, and he had trouble sitting in a few positions. We both thought that maybe he had hurt something while working out, and we didn't think much of it. He was also developing a cold (the two aren't related, but I felt it was worth noting). By Sunday (last Sunday, the day we really were planning on going hiking), he was miserable, with the cold and the tail bone thing, and I was about ready to take him to the doctors, however due to scheduling, his work, and stubbornness, he did not make it there until Tuesday (not the best idea).

Turns out Jeremy has Pilonidal Disease. Pilonidal Disease is when you have a cyst at the base of your spine, and for some people they don't even know about it until it gets infected, and that's what was happening to Jeremy. So Wednesday I took him to the Naval hospital to get the infected area lanced (eeeeek). Poor Jeremy, he was in so much pain, and wasn't able to sit or bend over.

After getting him home (carefully), and getting the pain meds in him, things seemed to be looking better. It was a rough next few days though. He couldn't sit, he could only lay down or stand, and for the first few days, standing really wasn't an option, because it made him sick and dizzy. We also have a very boring bedroom, so having to stay it bed was not very fun for him. He eventually got his iPad, and watched two seasons of the Walking Dead. I got to learn how to pack and re-pack a wound, and I got the privilege of waiting on him hand and foot. Now this I really didn't mind so much. He's my husband, I love him, I also felt so bad that he had to go through this, and I love spending time with him no matter what. It was my wonderful children however that were putting me on the edge. They were just loud, crazy and out of hand. Okay, you know, when you're on the phone, and your kids know you're on the phone, so during that time they feel the need to get into things, or do things they are not supposed to do (like pushing your brother around the room on the ottoman as fast as you can go) (YUP). Not to mention Olivia was going through some of those "I'm acting this way because I am three" moments. They knew I was distracted, and they took advantage of it (how dare they). I'm sure you can imagine, that at the end of everyday, when bed time came around I was so ready to put those kids to bed.

The good news is Jeremy is starting to feel better. He is finally able to sit in a mostly normal position. He is completely off of his pain meds, and it just taking over the counter. This makes both of us happy, because his pain meds made him sick, and loopy (yeah he was very entertaining when he was on them) (and he doesn't remember anything about that). He is also now able to walk around the house normally, so now I don't have to go and get everything for him (I really didn't mind at all, I'm just glad he is feeling better). So maybe next week, we can go hiking.... maybe, I just hope the nice weather keeps up.

Salmon!

There's not a lot to do here in Washington, that is unless you hike and watch nature all of the time, and there's nothing wrong with that. One of the things you do get to do (and I guess this really does go along with watching nature) is, you get to watch salmon. It's more exciting then it sounds (or maybe it's just really exciting for me, because I stay at home most of the time with my kids).

The homeschooling program that we are in (Off Campus), gets salmon eggs every year, and they let the kids release them into the stream, that is right next to their building (how convenient). Last fall in November we got a chance to see the salmon swimming upstream. This was at the very same stream that is right by the school distract building. 

We were told by Mrs. Huggins (our homeschool supervisor), that soon they would be getting the eggs, and we could come and see them in their library. AWESOME! So from that point on, every time we were in the building, we had to go and see those eggs.

This was really exciting, even if it doesn't look like it. Even if you are thinking to yourself "They are just eggs." Well yes they are, but they are also a learning experience, and that really gets me excited. Salmon are such awesome fish. From babies they travel thousands of miles to the ocean, and after just a few years they travel all the way back just to lay eggs, and then die, and that's if they make it back (Well I guess if they don't make it back, then yes they did die too....). Wow what a journey!

This became even more exciting when the eggs started to hatch :)

They were so small, and looked nothing like salmon. It's hard to believe that these little guys could make such a big journey. I've mentioned before that Olivia really likes fish and aquariums, so she was the real pusher, but the others of course didn't mind one bit.

Last week was release week, so we came on friday, and it was awesome!

This is the kids, and Mr. Menefee (one of the teachers), releasing the salmon

Each of them were able to release a few, with their red cups.

Mr. Menefee is showing them how to do it

He is now wishing the fish good luck :)

I was nervous when Mr Menefee started to hand each of the kids a cup, but he told me that he has yet to have a kid drop a cup, or fall into the stream. He was right, no one dropped their cup or fell in, and I was so glad (you have no idea). I really didn't want to be the first family to have someone drop their cup of fish, or have one of my kids fall into the stream.

Okay so great day, and big success! Can't wait to do it all again next year.

The weather was been great here these past few days, and we've been out more (you may have notice on the pictures above, that the sun is acually shining on the kids). On clear days you can see the mountains.

This is Mt. Rainier, and even though it is 75 miles away, you can still see it from here on a clear day, and it is huge! It's summit is 14,411 ft tall, and it is considered a Volcano. No Hawaii isn't the only state with volcanos, and no Mt. Rainier isn't the only one we have.

These are the mountains of the Olympic National Forest, and they'er a bit closer.

On most days you can't even see them because of overcast or rain, but like I was saying it's been really nice here lately. Sunny days, and the temperature has been in the mid 60s.

Saturday we took a walk downtown. We live close enough to do so. We visited our favorite game store, the pet store (to pick up some treats for the cats), and the playground.

Olivia has to bring her bears everywhere :)

Darien and Zach love the swings

Nathaniel loves to climb.

It really surprising how many cool things are within walking distance.

If the weather stays this nice, then this weekend we are going to go hiking (thats all you can do around here right?). If we do I'm sure you'll hear all about it ;)