What's Been Going On?

It's been a pretty exciting month in Wilsonland. Here's a sneak peak at some of the festivities.

First we went to the beach. We had luxurious accomodation at the Bonica's beach house in Lincoln City (aka Joe's Ark). The weather was a little windy but we had a great time with the girls, including Lilly who came along to occupy Ginny.

One note about this trip is that it was a girl get together with husbands optional. I was the only husband who came. That's me in a house with six women and as many as five children, all of whom happened to be girls. The HD flat screen downstairs mixed with college football kept me happy in the man-cave while the women shopped, or whatever it is that women do.

We also had the opportunity to go to our first ever Sounders game with Brandon and Ashely. We liked the marching band and loaded up on Sounders gear. Too bad it ended up a 0-0 tie. At least it was an exciting game.

Bri has been talking about taking me to see Wicked (The New Musical!) ever since two hours after she saw it last time, about two years ago. So we headed down to the Paramount for "one short day in the emerald city", which is ironic, seeing how we live in the Emerald City: a point which was not lost on the advertisers. Gravity was defied, hearts were softened, and we all learned a valuable lesson about not judging a book by its cover.

(Isn't Bri a babe?)

Lakes, Lutherans, and Mountains

So Brandon and I saw the summer was wearing thin and we still were needing to climb a big mountain. With no volcanoes in the picture we decided to go for a remote big boy: Mount Fernow, third highest non-volcanic peak in Washington, lord of the Entiats, at 9249 feet (but who's counting right?). I have to make it sound dramatic because no one's really heard of it. Here's an idea of what we were dealing with:

The trip started with a ride up Lake Chelan on a Ferry. We got off at Lucerne, about 4/5th of the way up the lake and caught the bus to Holden, an mining village turned Lutheran retreat. Being the only Mormons within 50 miles we decided to lay low until we could retrieve our bags and head up the trail. That trail got us to this nice meadow. From there we had to go up and over the saddle you can see in the background.The other side of the saddle is the dramatic headwaters of the Entiat river. We found a soft, flat place to pitch our tent. The view wasn't bad either:

The next morning we set out at 4am and arrived at the summit just after dawn. If you're not in on the secret, the best time to do anything outdoors is at dawn; this was no exception. The views were amazing in the hazy dawn glow. Here's Brandon with the North Cascades beyond.

We had to run back down to be back in Holden to catch the bus at 1pm. There's only one bus a day. The fact that Bri didn't murder me is proof we got back in time.

Gunnar and Camping

On Wednesday the 29th- that really hot day in Seattle- Gunnar my little brother joined us for about a week. He graciously watched my girls and the Maxfield girls so I could go to Ben's defense. It was nice to have some AC if only for an hour. In case you were wondering Ben passed and it was about 103 degrees in Seattle that day. We tried to go out to celebrate for dinner but everyone was at the mall and the surrounding restaurants trying to escape the heat. Oh well.

The next day I took the girls and Gunnar to the museum of flight. Little did we know the Blue Angels were taking off that morning. They took off just a few minutes after we parked, it was pretty cool. Here is a picture of Gunnar and Ginny in front of a Blue Angel inside the museum.

Here is Gunnar as an astronaut!

On Friday we got to go on our roof and watch some Blue Angel magic in the sky. It was pretty cool. Then we got busy packing to go camping two nights with our buddies the Maxfields.

Us girls enjoyed the river, playing games, and napping...

...while the boys did a short & nearby hike up Silver Peak.

Here is our family shot with my Gunnar.

Other fun things were swimming in the river, alley-ooping the girls, and a short nature hike together. At night we enjoyed s'mores and games like Seafarers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.

We had a great time.

Utah Road Trip

My cousin Erika was getting married in Utah. What better excuse to pack up the kids for a road trip? Any Northwestern Mormon knows the drive to Utah well. This was my first time driving from Seattle as opposed to the Tri-Cities. It's a twelve plus hour drive. Our plan was to leave early in the morning to take advantage of the girls being asleep. It took 16 hours counting all the potty breaks and run-around breaks. My sister Miranda mercifully put us up for the duration of our stay in scenic Eagle Mountain. The next morning was the temple ceremony in the brand new Draper Temple with the reception in the evening. Ginny really thought Erika was a real princess, thus the ecstatic look in this picture: Between the Temple and the reception we stopped in to see some of Bri's cousins and her Grandma. Everyone had a great time while I slept off the drive on the couch. This is Bri's cousin Missy with selected grandkids of her uncle Steve.
This is Lauren with her two kids. Katie and Kelly also stopped in.

That evening we were treated to the world's game. That's right Major League Soccer, Real Salt Lake. I've been to a few crazy soccer games in my day, but this was the craziest scoring wise. After being down 2-0 at halftime I was bracing for an embarrassing defeat. Then we came back and scored 4 goals in the second half. To top it off, we blocked a penalty kick. We were overjoyed:Saturday morning we went to visit my high school era pal Keith's family. We got to see their luxurious accommodations in South Provo. Sorry, no pics. A word on heat: it was really hot the whole time. Saturday was actually the coolest day, but it was still plenty warm for a little slip and slide. Ginny was a natural, though she preferred running down instead of sliding. Here she is sliding with a little help from dad.

Phil introduced us to the idea of the slip-and-slide relay. It entailed sliding the length of the slip and slide, getting up and completely submerging in the pool (which ended up giving me some trouble), then racing back to the starting point. It turned out to be a good mix of slap-stick and skill. Bri even got in on the action. Enjoy these clips!

We had a great time. Big thanks to the Lewises for room, board, and entertainment. We had a blast.

We are having a...

Girl! Apparently we are good at girls. So just incase you were wondering, we have a girl coming December 17th, but probably later because I dont go into labor. Anyone who sends me early delivery vibes will recieve chocolate desserts made by me. Here is a picture from today, and now I can see the Ginny/Violet resemblance. We will post our trip to Utah soon.

Goat Rocks Fiasco

It started with a bargain. Bri came up with it: Ben finishes reading the Twilight series (he was bogged down in book two) and Bri goes backpacking with Ben in the Goat Rocks. Deal. In case you're wondering why the Goat Rocks, it's where the vampires go hunting in book one. It was also on my list of places to check out. In case you're wondering what the Goat Rocks are, they're a high volcanic ridge just south of White Pass in south central Washington. The next major development came a few weeks later when we found out Bri was pregnant. But the deal had been made. That brings us to last Friday, when we set out from Conrad Meadows into the heart of the wilderness. Here's Bri with the highest point of the Goat rocks in the background. That was our destination.

So Conrad Meadows is apparently the largest sub alpine meadow in Washington. Take that for what it's worth. The first section is actually range land for cattle. After a few miles you get into the Goat Rocks Wilderness. Bri was stoked.It was a hot day. It was 102 when we passed through Yakima. Luckily the altitude, time of day, and shade were on our side. The mosquitoes were not on our side. Despite applying bug spray Ben ended up with 76 bites, mostly on the back of his upper arms, where he missed with the bug spray. Bri escaped with only a handfull. After a long hike with plenty of elevation gain we came to this nice cliff where we camped the night. What a view! Did we mention this was Bri's first backpacking trip ever? Another first for Bri was drinking water straight from a glacier (ok, ok, its technically a permanent snow field). Here's Ben refilling our water supply. Around our campsite we stumbled upon an entire herd of what Ben believes were mule deer. There were about ten that we saw, including big males and babies. They checked us out for a minute then ran off. We were the only people out there. Speaking of animals, Bri proved to be like a mountain goat, only much more attractive. Here she is tackling some snow. That women is four months pregnant!
Let's be honest. This trip was hard on Bri. Her bag was only about 15 pounds, but Ben ended up carrying it about a third of the way, including almost all the uphill parts. Here's what that looked like as we arrived at Surprise Lake on Saturday morning.
Our grand total in mileage was about 15 or 16 miles. It was a great time. Next time we'll do something a little shorter when Bri is a little less pregnant, though.

Violet shows walking skill, still lacks interest

Good headline huh? Yeah, so she started walking on Sunday. I even managed to get seven steps out of her today. The only thing is that she doesn't do it on her own. I have to stand her up and say, "Violet come here," or "Walk Vi!" I know I shouldn't rush her. You just wait, she will walk on her own this weekend while Ben and I are away, and we will miss it. Yes, Ben is trying to kill his pregnant wife by taking her up a mountain overnight. Okay, Okay, no the real story is I told him I would hike the Goat Rocks with him if he finished the Twilight series. He did. So think of me on Friday and Saturday, I'll need some good vibes. I'm sure I'll be fine, unless I meet any VAMPIRES!!! We will post photos when we're back.

Meanwhile heres a Vi Video.