Mt. Rainier

Notice the color of the Indian Paintbrush...magenta. Most Indian Paintbrush is red, but Mt. Rainier's Indian Paintbrush is magenta. Fields and fields full of magenta flowers. Gorgeous!!

 The flowers were still in bloom at Mt. Rainier!! Seeing the all the wildflowers and the beautiful mountain on a gorgeous sunny day made getting up at 5:30 worth the effort.  I wish my camera could capture how beautiful it really was. I also wish my camera could capture the fragrance from the flowers. It smelled so good:)

 Beautiful Dewey Lakes....Rachel's face isn't so beautiful.  She was a little grumpy for most of the hike.

 We stopped for lunch on a rock with a terrific view of the mountain.

 Notice the bird in the tree. He really wanted some of our lunch. Notice the cloud forming over Mt. Rainier?  Well, it got bigger and bigger until it eventually blanketed the mountain, but not before we left. As we were driving away, raindrops fell and the mountain disappeared. I am so glad we went to Mt. Rainier today before it rained. Last night the rain and wind were intense and the power went out. I'm glad we had one last day of sunshine before 8 months of rain begin.

 Notice Erin Joy's shoes.  I threw her in the car in her pajamas at 6:00 in the morning so we could drive to Bellevue to meet our friends at 7:30. I forgot her shoes. We found a Fred Meyer open and she scored with a pair of $50.00 Nikes. I would NEVER spend that much for shoes. It was buy one get one free though so Rachel got a pair too. They are very excited about their new shoes. They didn't need new shoes. Sigh. So much for my budget.

 Erin Joy found a new friend who was willing to carry her on his shoulders.  They also sang songs including Jingle Bells all the way down the Naches Peak loop trail.

 Our hiking group of other single parents and friends from my church.

 The flowers were so beautiful.

 We ended up stopping at Paradise on the way home. There weren't as many wildflowers at Paradise as there were at Naches Peak, but it was still beautiful.

There were so many great pictures. I really hope you watch this video that contains many more great pictures from our fabulous day:

Mid-Autumn Festival

We enjoyed an evening with friends in a park to celebrate Mid-Autumn (Moon ) Festival.

Yummy food!

Ah...a beautiful night to see the full moon!

I love the sunset behind my daughter swinging. If you look closely, you can see the water of Puget Sound too. What a beautiful night!

Lots of kids = lots of fun.

Story of Hou Yi and Chang E...

Time for a little lantern parade...notice the moon behind them...

My beautiful girls...

Erin Joy put us in "jail" behind the bathroom.

Watering the Flowers

Now that school has started, the weather has been HOT and sunny...90 degrees hot! We haven't had temperatures in the 90s all summer. In fact, I think it has only been in the 80s 5 or 6 times this year (around here that is...we saw plenty of sun with temperature in the 100s in the desert when we traveled to Southern Utah and Arizona).

Why did the sun decide to shine now in September? I'd love to be swimming in the ocean on Jetty Island instead of cooped up in a classroom with no air conditioning.

All the hot temperature and lack of rain is killing my grass.  I usually just let it die, but I don't want my flowers to die. My girls have offered to water the flowers and grass a lot recently.  Wonder why?!!!

10 Years Ago

I'll never forget. My children were born after 9/11/01.  We have been at war during my children's entire life.  My children don't understand the events of 9/11. I don't understand either. Peace. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just live in peace?

I enjoyed "Music and the Spoken Word" with Tom Brokaw and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was a nice tribute and positive. I can't find the show on youtube yet, but you can watch it by clicking here.  Here is an interview with Tom Brokaw about the broadcast:

Back to School

I'm so glad Erin Joy helped me sharpen pencils for my classroom. I wondered why it was taking her so long.  She took brand new pencils and sharpened them down to almost nothing!!!  ARGH!!!!!

She also drew a nice picture on the board to welcome my new students.

Here she is all ready for second grade with her new lunch box/purse!!  The girls were upset that their backpacks were already at school waiting for them in my classroom so we didn't get pictures with their new backpacks. Oh well.

And here is Rachel....all ready for fourth grade with a huge grin!!

They sure have grown. I'll have to compare these pictures to their kindergarten pictures.

Before we had even left the school building, Rachel had shown me all of her papers and made sure I signed everything and so forth.  I had to look in Erin Joy's backpack when we got home.  What did I discover?? Her school supplies were still in there! I asked her, "Didn't you give these to your teacher?"  "Oh, I forgot." was her response.  She also had papers belonging to another child in her backpack. Apparently she got the mail out of the wrong mailbox.  Nothing has changed since last year! Let the fun begin!!

Ensign Ranch

We enjoyed Labor Day Weekend at Ensign Ranch at a single adult family campout for members of my church who are single and over the age of 30. This campout happens every Labor Day, but I seldom attend because I am too worried about getting my classroom ready. This year, we left early so I could go to school on Monday. We had so much fun! We will try really hard to attend every year.

I was amazed at the amount of people at camp. Over 900 people registered...Wow!!! That's a lot of single people around here! Sheesh! You think I could find a husband or something! I didn't find a husband this weekend, but I certainly had a lot of fun!! (I'm NOT looking for a husband...just to make that clear...)

We loved camping in a teepee on a little island in the middle of the lake.

The mist rising from the lake in the morning was absolutely beautiful. I really couldn't get a picture of it, but you can imagine.

There was evidence of beaver activity all over the island. It was well named, "Beaver Island."

Posing by the bridge leading to our teepee...

 We enjoyed a nice hike to Franklin Falls.

 Our little hiking group....

 Hay ride...

Canoeing around Beaver Island...I took this picture behind my head. I was too scared to turn around. I thought I'd tip the boat:) I get nervous in boats. I was grateful our cousin came with us and steered the boat from the back. If it wasn't for her, I'd still be in the lake going around and around and around and around....

 We floated by our great teepee! Fun! I loved staying in a teepee on a little island!

 Talk about a mega slip 'n' slide!! This was a lot of fun!! We didn't bring water shoes so the girls borrowed one pair from a friend. They took turns going down the slide with the borrowed shoes.  Here are a few pictures followed by a little video. I hope you watch the video...it is pretty funny when both girls fall down:)  The sun was shining directly into the camera so the pictures and video quality is poor, but good enough.  I'm just glad the sun was shining!!!  It was absolutely beautiful all weekend!!

Horse back ride--parent led horse back ride--I had to pretend I wasn't afraid of horses and lead the horse around.  Glad my girls had fun:) I pretended to have fun:)

Just playing under the bridge and around Beaver Island.

The children's activity room included balloon animal making and other fun games and crafts. We all had a great weekend!!!