Sibling Hikes/Excursions

This is the fourth year that Mary and I have done our own hikes/excursions with our siblings (Mary with her siblings, me with my bro's and my dad). Mary's info is down below mine.
This year for our hike we went to the Alpine Wilderness Area in the Cascades, which is where we spent most of our time as Scouts. We had never done this hike before but Mary and her siblings did this hike their first year and we had planned to do it two years ago but they had fire in the area that year. This was the first year that Robb was able to go, and it was fun to have him. Jordan and my Dad and I have gone every year and we had Braden two years ago with us. Next year we hope to have everybody (including Chris). We camped at Hyas Lake and visited Little Hyas Lake as well as Tuck Lake. It is right near Deception Pass and Hyas Lake is just below Cathedral Rock. Mary and I and the kids drove over to Robb and Heather's on Wed evening and then Robb and I got up early and met my Dad and Jordan in Cle Elum, WA and headed up to the trailhead.

We had, as usual, a great time. This was the best weather we've ever had and that made it that much better (last year we had snow in September and two years ago it rained most of the time... and Braden had some explosive trots). We enjoyed playing "Greed" (a fun dice-game learned from Mary's family) and just chatting and being outdoors. One of our main criteria for selecting a site is that we want to be able to have a fire, which is a must and we enjoyed having one this year.

Some highlights:
-No one had the trots
-It didn't snow
-It didn't rain
-It wasn't cold
-Robb got bit by a mouse... in his tent (AWESOME - and it would only happen to Robb if you know our family! - I love you Robb!)
-Being far enough away from my Dad to not hear him snoring.
-Beautiful location
-The rotating "chair hierarchy" based upon your place (1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th) in the last game of dice - that made the game a little more competitive.
-Trying to catch the chipmunk

Anyway, we had an absolute blast and look forward to doing it next year. Here are some pics:

Here we are at our camp before we headed out on our day trip up to Tuck Lake. It was a great day-trip!
I always wish that most of the pictures that are taken are more close-up. This picture is an exception... and I'm sure you'll agree. Jordan's the tan one, I'm the short one. We did actually go "swimming" (we didn't actually swim, but we did all fully submerge in water above our heads, even if it was very brief for Robb and I).
We had one chipmunk that was everywhere in the camp and into anything it could possibly get into... except our bucket. We had him on several occasions but the bucket would over tip and he would scamper out. We were disappointed that we never actually got him.
As the pic above of Robb, me and Jordan attests, this really was a brutal climb, more steep then any other hike that I've been on. I understood why everyone that we passed coming down had hiking poles as it seemed like almost a safety necessity that we were lacking while coming down.

Here we are way up above Hyas Lake and that's Cathedral Rock right above us in the background. We are less than 1/4 mile from Tuck Lake at this point and are looking forward to lunch and an extended break. This provided a nice lookout.
Here we are at Tuck Lake for lunch on Friday. Although we were ambitious and wanted to go to the upper lake (Robin Lakes), our legs and stamina were telling us otherwise. After all, wisdom is the better part of valor, right!

I'm hoping that the pic above and the pic below can be merged to include all of us together (Rebecca?)... or at least we tried to set it up that way. We couldn't get the timer thing on the camera to work (Operator Error?).

Here we are next to the Roslyn Cafe, where we ate lunch on the way home. It's always nice to eat at a decent restaurant after a good couple of days in the wilderness. I'm sure the other customers don't always appreciate our ora, but we enjoy ourselves. My Dad always loved the show Northern Exposure which was filmed in Roslyn, so it was fun to drive through the town and to eat lunch there.


Every year for Mary's gathering either she or her sister has been pregnant and the other one that is not pregnant has had a nursing infant with them. And, believe it or not, this is the first year that they didn't go hiking! When one is carrying a baby and the other is pregnant, you can imagine that Mary's brothers have had to carry A LOT of the weight when they would hike... and that's certainly been the case. They're real troopers! This year they went to McCall over Labor Day weekend and enjoyed their time up there playing games and talking and enjoying the beauty of McCall. Here are some pics of their time up in McCall:

Mary with her younger brother Kris with Jane. Thanks for making the drive Kris!
Mary with her older brother Michael... thanks for making the flight, then the drive!
Kris working diligently on the fire they had in the firepit we built this summer. Why is he building a fire you might ask? For Foil-Dinners...yummi!
Here's Michael multi-tasking: talking on the phone to his "girlfriend" and putting together some foil-dinner goodness.
Here's Michael on the phone again - but hiding it. Mary & Kris gave him 5 minute time limits which he pretty much kept - except in the wee hours of night. This is one drawback of not being in the wilderness - technology.

Ode to Uncles

I don't know what it is about Uncles that is so cool for my kiddos. I think that a big part of it is that for most of Sarah's life she's had four bachelor Uncles, two on each side of our family. Braden got married last year so my brother Jordan is the special uncle on my side of the family. Anyway, I was looking through some pictures on our computer and started seeing some great pictures that I wanted to post regarding my brothers and brothers-in-law with my kiddos. While we lived with my parents during grad school (about 18 months), both Jordan and Braden lived there for a good portion of that time. So Sarah, particularly, feels really close to Uncle Jordan and just the other day completely out of the blue she said "I want to call Uncle Jordan" so we did. Uncle Kris has been our most frequent family visitor since we've been in Idaho, which has meant a lot to us and our kids. Anywa, here are some samples. They are not in any particular order, just randomly posted as I find them on the computer. One of my favorite parts about all of these are some of the "awkward Uncle holds" when uncles that are not parents try to hold an infant. There are some good demonstrations of this below!

This is the most current "Uncle" pic, from just last weekend when Mary and the kids went down to Utah for the weekend. This was at Braden and Amanda's house in Provo and Uncle Kris came by to spend some time with his sister and his niece and nephew. I don't think that Kris got his afternoon nap on that day. Kris is a pretty handsome kid, huh! If you know of any eligible young ladies in the Provo area, just let me know and I'll forward the info... not that Kris is in need of a date or anything... and he usually does quite well on his own... just not that well yet.

Here is Uncle Michael, Mary's oldest brother. Seriously, you have to be an Uncle to dress up in this kind of outfit when: 1) you're an adult; 2) it's NOT Halloween; and 3) There is a camera around. Nice work Uncle Mike! If you ever want to hear a hilarious story regarding Mary and the above Famed Hughes Frog Costume, just ask! In looking through our pics I was disappointed to not find any of Uncle Mike with our kids, though I have plenty with his other nephews. Then I realized that he hasn't been around Nathan much and he likes to wrestle and play roughly with my nephews, so Sarah has largely opted not to be a part of their rough housing. Mike is a great uncle though, when he's awake that is.

We invited Uncle Kris up to our place (from Provo) for his birthday in January. He came and didn't get much sleep but I hope that he had fun being with family on his birthday. Here he is letting Sarah help him with his candles on his birthday cake.

Here is Uncle Kris letting Nathan look at one of his birthday presents in January.

Here is Uncle Jordan holding Nathan last November when we were at Robb and Heather's for Carson's baby blessing. They're just watching college football together... hopefully the first of many opportunities!

Here is Uncle Kris with Nathan and Mary. Mary and I have done annual hikes with our siblings and whenever Kris has gone with his two sisters, he has been the packhorse because every year (three years running now) one of his sisters has had an infant and the other one has been pregnant so he has literally been a packhorse! Luckily, Uncle Mike joined them last year so he had some help. Mary reports that Kris has been a trooper despite the weight he has to take with him.
Uncle Kris reading to Sarah, Jacob and Gideon at Nanu and Bumpa's house in Leavenworth.

Uncle Kris drove over (from E. WA) for Sarah's 2nd birthday party. She was pretty happy to have her Uncle there, as you can tell!

Uncle Jordan reading a book to Sarah at Oma and Opa's house.

Uncle Braden and Sarah sharing a candy cane and a Winnie-the-Pooh story book at Oma and Opa's house.

Uncle Jordan and Sarah came up with this game where Sarah would sit at the top of the stairs and Jordan at the bottom and she would throw the balls down to him and he would carefully toss them back up. Sarah (and later Nathan) really enjoyed this game and enjoyed learning it from her Uncle Jordan at Oma and Opa's house.
"Sure Sarah, go ahead an play with my cell phone/PDA!" Uncle Jordan seems to be having an enlightening conversation with Mother Mary (Ruby) while Joseph (Sarah) checks out the latest technology. This may be the last sighting of Jordan's stylus for his phone. Here is one of those clearly awkward Uncle holding moments as demonstrated by Uncle Braden.
Sorry Uncle Jordan, Uncles aren't allowed to sleep when they're on Uncle duty!

Uncle Jordan seems like a pretty proud Uncle to Mary, Joseph and an Angel on Christmas Eve.

I'm sure Uncle Kris never foresaw this picture on the World-Wide-Web. I think Nathan is trying to imitate Kris in this picture. Sorry Kris, I just couldn't leave this one out ;*P
Uncle Jordan with Nathan as an infant... another awkward Uncle hold demonstrated by Jordan.
Uncle Kris with Nathan as a newborn in the hospital. It's great when Uncles come and visit in the hospital because they are very excited, but they don't really know what to do with themselves besides awkwardly hold the baby, pose for a picture and then try to stand off to the side with their hands in their pockets while they involuntarily listen to conversations about things they want to know nothing about and would prefer not to hear but they don't feel like they can just excuse themselves politely.

This is Uncle Braden returning from his mission in Korea. Sarah was really excited about seeing him at the airport and enjoyed making signs for him. Sarah and Nathan's great-grandmother is in the background. Even though none of my kids are in this pic, I wanted to include it because I liked it.

Last winter (06-07) when it snowed like crazy we had enough snow to go out and enjoy it and Uncle Jordan (back left) and Uncle Braden (back right) were right out there building a snowman at Sarah's command. Honestly, they did most of the work and followed just about every directive from Sarah.